


Serendipity

by miraculousghostspider



Category: Danny Phantom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Peter Parker, Danny & Peter bonding, Danny doesn't sleep, Danny is a little shit, F/M, Fluff, Flustered Peter Parker, Ghost King Danny Fenton, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I take what I want from canon and ignore the rest, M/M, Mild Angst, Pansexual Danny Fenton, Peter has a huge gay crush and it's only slightly worse than Danny's, Secret Identity, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Vlad's only sort of a dick, but it's not really a huge plot point, coffee shop AU, no one in this does really, not technically an AU but whatever, oblivious dorks, the Avengers are here but only when I want them to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24298741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraculousghostspider/pseuds/miraculousghostspider
Summary: Peter has a pretty full schedule--what with preparing to become a full-time Avenger on top of trying to figure out where all the ghosts that have been showing up in New York are coming from.  Hedefinitelydoesn't need to add romance on top of all of that.(If only he could get the message across to the cute guy at the coffee shop that keeps flirting with him.)
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Peter Parker, Danny Fenton & Tony Stark, Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters, Danny Fenton/Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 223
Kudos: 1316
Collections: Clever Crossovers & Fantastic Fusions





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Enigmaris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enigmaris/gifts).



> I don't even know how this happened. I swear it was only supposed to be a one shot. It did not agree with that idea. I planned this in two days and then wrote it in four. I have been blessed by the writing gods.  
> Enjoy!

“Sorry!” Peter cried behind him as he bumped into someone on the crowded street. He looked at the signs on shops he passed by, hoping for something easy and quick.

His fingers twitched in irritation as another person slammed into him without apologizing. _God,_ he wanted to be in the lab right now. He’d been working nonstop for the past twenty-seven hours with Tony, tracking down _ghosts_ of all things. They had been appearing all over the city, terrifying civilians and being general nuisances.

“It’s only a matter of time before things get worse,” the Fentons (ghost experts that people had called crazy until their work was proven) had said in reply to the email Tony had sent them. “Ghosts are temperamental creatures, and even the most innocent seeming one can be dangerous. You need to find the source of the hoard and cut it off as soon as possible.”

They were still working on finding a legal way to get weapons from the Illinois based pair, so for the moment it was just Spider-Man swinging around the city trying to make sure they didn’t hurt anyone, and Peter Parker trying to figure out where they were coming from.

“‘Scuse me,” he said, squeezing in between a large group of people. He was beginning to regret his decision to wait a year before going into college, instead spending that time working on becoming an Avenger (mostly legal work, in case there was a serious issue Spider-Man could help with) and “interning” with Tony. It was absolutely _exhausting,_ and he needed caffeine.

(Pepper had banned him from just getting his coffee at the Tower, claiming that he needed sunlight every once in a while.)

A tiny shop that smelled like coffee caught his eye, and he fought against the crowd of people on the streets to get in. There were only a handful of people there, and he could only see one person working. It looked pretty cozy, and he just prayed it had good coffee because he was getting coffee for Tony too, and his standards were much higher than Peter’s.

He stumbled over the counter, blurting out his order so fast even he couldn't understand it. The guy blinked in surprise at the word vomit, blue eyes wide, before his expression morphed to one of amusement.

“Could you repeat that, please?” he asked, voice a smooth tenor.

“Sorry,” Peter laughed, only a little mortified, repeating his order much slower. He was suddenly aware of his grease stained shirt and that he hadn’t even bothered to brush his hair before leaving. It was a stark contrast to—he glanced down to see _Danny_ written on his name tag—to Danny’s neat hair that fell over his forehead and clean clothes under the required apron.

“Can I get a name for your order?” Danny asked him, pulling him roughly out of his thoughts.

“Um, Peter Parker,” he responded after a moment, wincing at how uncool he sounded.

Peter knew he was a dork, but that didn’t make him feel any better when he was trying to talk to cute guys.

He took a seat at the counter while Danny began to make his drink.

“Are you really the only worker?” he asked, immediately wincing internally. Why did he have to be so awkward?

Luckily, Danny only laughed. “I mean, someone else comes in for a bit during the morning rush, but there’s not really a ton of people coming for coffee at ten in the morning.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Peter admitted, an easy smile on his face.

Danny took the drinks he had just finished putting together and wrote a name on one, heading over to the pick up counter instead of straight over to Peter.

“Peter Parker?” he called, acting as though he hadn’t _literally_ just been talking to him.

Shaking his head at the strangeness of the action, Peter stood to go grab his drinks. He picked them up and caught the name on the cup, _“Peeta Parker”._

He made a face at Danny, who was smiling far too innocently to be believable.

“Have a nice day, Peeta!” he said cheerfully as he walked away.

“It’s Peter!” he called back, fighting back a smile as he made his way back to the Tower.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes back to the coffee shop and Spider-Man runs into the elusive Phantom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was about to post this before deciding it was too short and adding a few lines here and there, so if there are any mistakes or some stuff sounds kind of repetitive then oops. I'm still not quite happy with the length, but the later chapters are longer, promise.

Peter groaned the next morning, unable to focus on the code in front of him.

He had stayed up far too late trying to stop the ghosts that seemed to be everywhere he turned. His webs didn’t work on the specters, capable of simply flying through them, and adding insult to injury, Phantom had shown up.

Phantom was a ghost from Amity Park that the Fentons had warned about specifically. According to their research, he was an especially deceitful ghost that enjoyed playing hero most of the time, turning on the town whenever it best suited him.

He had been a _huge_ help in stopping the ghosts, but the Fentons had told them to be careful. As soon as there wasn’t a bigger problem to face, he’d probably turn on them, craving another challenge. Though he wouldn’t admit it, Peter knew that Tony was terrified that they wouldn’t be prepared when that time came.

Tony stumbled into the lab, looking like the walking dead. Peter had made him go to bed the night before, as he’d been awake even longer than Peter himself had.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked with a grin, grateful for the reprieve.

Tony gave him a look, though it probably didn't come across as annoyed as he meant it to, his eyes still bleary with sleep as they were. “I need coffee, Parker.”

“I can go grab some,” Peter volunteered, standing up.

Tony looked at him weirdly, as though trying to convince himself it was _actually_ Peter Parker offering to leave the Tower. “Yesterday you wanted nothing to do with the outdoors and today you’re _choosing_ to go outside.”

“I need a break,” he admitted, ignoring the fact that, true though that statement was, it wasn't really his reasoning. “I can’t focus at _all.”_

“Go get me coffee,” Tony said, taking Peter’s seat for himself. “God knows you need a break. I’m terrible at taking care of teenagers.”

“I’m nineteen,” Peter defended, rolling his eyes as he grabbed his wallet and jacket.

“Still a teenager,” Tony called after him as the elevator doors closed.

Stepping out of the lobby, he blinked and paused, looking at the dark sky. There was absolutely no _way_ it was already night. Tony would never have slept that long. He had trouble getting even a few hours of sleep, and even when he lied and said he'd slept the whole night through, Peter knew it wasn't true. He could _hear_ his heartbeat speed up from nightmares, and it killed him that Tony didn't want him getting up to help him through them every time, even though he insisted on getting up every time _Peter_ had trouble sleeping, haunted by gunshots and hearts stopping and buildings collapsing.

He checked his phone and winced. It was only 5:53 in the morning.

“Hope they’re open,” he mumbled to himself as he walked, burrowing deeper into his jacket. It was getting colder and wetter, and the spider part of him Did Not like that. This early in the morning was even worse. He'd worked with Tony to make him a jacket with a heater, but it couldn't be _too_ hot or it would be dangerous for his health.

There were a lot more cars than Peter would have expected, and he was reminded that some people had work this early _every day_ , which sounded awful. But Peter didn't really like having a set time for anything he did (he was a lot like Tony in that way). But luckily, the coffee shop he was headed for was open.

The door chimed as he opened it, and he was only somewhat surprised to see more people than the day before. Most looked like zombies, but still.

He frowned when he saw the unfamiliar woman taking orders, but couldn’t help the way his heart jumped when he saw Danny making drinks. (He also couldn’t help but be grateful that he’d taken a shower the night before and had put on clean clothes, but that was neither here nor there.)

In the middle of his order, Danny looked up and his eyes flashed with recognition, grinning and waving at him. Peter stopped and waved back, freezing and apologizing to the girl who had turned to look at Danny, making a face Peter couldn’t see that made Danny blush. She turned back to him with a smug look, letting him finish ordering, much more confused than he’d been when he got there.

“Peter Parker!” Danny called out a few minutes later, and he tried not to hurry up to the counter.

“Please tell me you actually went home yesterday,” he teased, accepting the drinks.

“You caught me at the end of my shift,” he promised. “I guess it’s a good thing you came when you did.” He winked at Peter, actually _winked,_ and Peter felt any and all hope of not making a fool of himself disappear.

“I guess so,” was the only thing he managed to stammer out, his flirty confidence lost.

He finally bothered to look down at his cup as he left, eyes widening at the _“Star Wars”_ written in place of his name, with a few stars drawn around it.

He spent a few moments confused out of his mind as to whether he just really looked like a Star Wars fan or if Danny somehow knew, before he realized he was wearing a Star Wars shirt May got him for his birthday.

 _He remembered your name,_ another part of his mind whispered. He didn’t fight the smile that time.

* * *

Spider-Man swung through the streets of Manhattan, chasing after the green blur ahead of him. His hands ached from swinging for so long, as he had a habit of gripping his webs tighter than necessary when he was stressed. He could hear people screaming as the ghost flew _through_ the skyscraper, terrifying the people inside, and he flipped around the building to meet it as it passed through to the other side. He was _so tired_ of dealing with ghosts. It wasn't like busting a drug deal or stopping a group of HYDRA goons. With those they were usually making at least _some_ progress, and even if it took awhile to get their hands on the proper information, once they had the resources they powered through and stopped the bad guys in a few weeks. But they'd _found_ professionals, they'd spoken to the Fentons. But they _still_ weren't making any progress!

He inhaled sharply as his spidey-sense began to buzz in the back of his mind, barely surprised when Phantom appeared beside him, floating leisurely on his back with his hands behind his head, acting as though he didn’t have a care in the world and yet easily keeping pace with him. His shockingly white hair shifted as though there was a slight breeze, though it _should_ be in his face what with the wind resistance they were facing. His eyes glittered with amusement, as though the situation were one big game he couldn't wait to play, and Peter almost envied his carefree attitude, his ability to stay calm even with the dangers they were facing. (It made sense that he didn't care, they weren't a danger to _him.)_

“Need a hand?” he quipped, and Peter couldn’t help but think, not for the first time, that they’d probably get along if Phantom wasn’t an evil, manipulative ghost.

“I think I’m good,” he said rather than vocalizing that thought, forcing himself not to make a pun, lest he get into another pun war with the ghost. He got in _so much_ trouble the last time, and he _really_ wasn't in the mood to get lectured by _Captain America_ on just why it was a bad idea to joke and banter with the enemy. Peter had been too excited that someone was actually bantering _back_ the first time to understand why it was a bad idea, but he had since realized that if he started trusting the ghost to have his back simply because he was funny, it could lead to him getting hurt. (He'd seen how Tony reacted when he got hurt. He wouldn't do that to him.)

Phantom didn’t acknowledge the dismissal. Instead, his hand lit up with neon green light, hitting the ghost Peter had been tracking for the past hour, making it disappear instantly as Peter sighed in defeat.

That was one trait a lot of the ghosts shared. Not all, but many of them were weak enough that a single blast was enough to get rid of them. But considering the Avengers had yet to get weapons that worked against ghosts from the Fentons, that knowledge did little to help them.

“Thanks,” Peter said shortly (forcing himself not to voice one of the dozens of puns that had crossed his mind), trying to ignore the frown that came across Phantom’s face. While the Avengers as a group had decided they shouldn’t be openly hostile with the ghost, as he hadn’t actually _done_ anything wrong yet, and provoking him might cause him to turn on them sooner rather than later, they figured getting close to him would be a bad idea on many levels (in case he managed to manipulate them into thinking he was on their side). It was _hard_ for someone like Peter, who prided himself on being kind and welcoming, not to be like that with him, but he thought of his friends and family, who could get hurt if Phantom managed to sink his claws into them, and he tried to squash down the guilt that rose in his chest.

“You’re welcome,” Peter heard him say dryly as he swung away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't quite decided an update schedule for this, but it'll be at least once a week. I have it all pre-written, so rest assured that it WILL get finished, I don't plan to abandon it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter may or may not have a crush and Spider-Man learns a little bit more about Phantom.

“Good morning to you too,” Danny said sarcastically as Peter stormed into the coffee shop, devoid of any human life beside the two of them, an annoyed scowl on his face.

“Sorry,” he replied, trying not to look as upset. He wasn’t really _upset_ , per se, just annoyed at Tony's flippancy and exhausted on top of that. “Just. . . eccentric billionaires.”

He expected Danny to assume he was joking, as most people did when he offhandedly mentioned being friends with a billionaire, or for him to get intrigued and ask who he was talking about, as the rest did. He did not expect Danny to chuckle and respond with, “Oh mood. Is yours an asshole too?”

Peter couldn’t help the laugh that spilled from his lips at the completely unanticipated response. There was a high chance Danny was making that up on the spot—not to be cruel, just to be funny—but he said his jokes so seriously at times that it was hard to tell.

“Only sometimes,” he answered, not entirely joking.

He’d been coming to the hole in the wall place for a few weeks now, enjoying the atmosphere and the company as much as he enjoyed the coffee. (Possibly more. Probably more. _Oh, who was he kidding?_ The coffee could taste like dirt and he'd still come just so he could see Danny.) Every time he’d shown his face, there was a silly name on his cup, sometimes relating to his shirt, other times his mood, while some were just Danny intentionally getting Peter’s name wrong. There had been Human Golden Retriever, Cap’n ‘Murica, AC/DC, Moody Bitch, Pizza Portal, Pedro Pizzaz, Harry Pottah, and many, many more.

“Spider-Man, huh?” Danny said as he made Peter the drink that he didn’t even have to order anymore.

The blood drained from his face as his heart stopped. _What had given him away?_ He hadn't accidentally introduced himself as "Peter-Man, er, Spider-Parker" in forever, so it probably wasn't that. He hadn't even come by as Spider-Man yet, though he'd been tempted to several times on patrol.

“What?” he managed to squeak out.

Danny gestured to his shirt and Peter looked down at him, feeling himself relax as he nodded automatically. He hadn’t even realized he’d put on the Spider-Man shirt MJ had jokingly gotten him as a gift that morning.

“It’s awful out there,” Danny pointed out, seeming oblivious to the fact that he'd nearly given Peter a heart attack, as though Peter hadn't figured out the state of the weather from his dripping hair and clothes. “I wasn’t sure you’d be coming out today.”

“I’m bi,” he said dryly, his heart still beating a little too fast. He didn’t tell him how terrible the trek had been, the rain drenching him despite his umbrella and the wind burning through his clothes and making the chill even worse, letting it seep through his body and freezing him from the inside out.

He didn’t admit that he wanted to see Danny, because that was ridiculous. The only reason he was here was because Pepper told him not to have coffee at the Tower, that was all. (The fact that she would instantly lift the ban considering the weather was irrelevant, as was the fact that he’d passed at least a dozen other shops on the way here.)

Danny threw back his head and laughed at that, the sound warming up his chilled bones.

“Not the type of coming out I meant, but I’ll take it,” he said, pausing. “I’m pan,” he said as he finished up Peter’s order.

He took extra time to write the name with a shit-eating grin on his face, tongue poking out in concentration, blue eyes bright like they were trying to replace the sun that was currently hiding behind the clouds.

 _“Bi-der-Man,”_ was written on it with a surprisingly well drawn spider hanging from a thread beside the words.

Peter’s heart skipped a beat. “Don’t give away my secret identity,” he teased, taking a sip and somehow feeling that it was _better_ than normal. _Happier._ (Maybe he was the one that was happier.)

Danny winked at him, unfairly hot in his apron. “Your secret’s safe with me, Spidey.”

Peter couldn’t help but think that it probably would be.

* * *

“Are you okay?” Spider-Man heard from behind him. He tried not to groan in frustration, the familiar buzz in the back of his mind having alerted him to the ghost’s presence despite there being no heartbeat to pick up on. _(That_ had been disconcerting the first few times. He hadn’t even realized why Phantom felt so _off_ until it hit him that the heartbeat he was so used to seeking out in people— _silently_ _reassuring himself that they were_ there _they were_ fine _they were_ **alive** —was startlingly missing.)

He had been hoping Phantom would leave him to his thoughts, but should have known he wasn’t that lucky.

“Just thinking,” he said. He did _not_ need Phantom knowing about a crush he didn’t have.

He could hear the light footsteps that meant Phantom had foregone floating for the moment as he came closer, the glow lighting up the rooftop and casting shadows across it that danced their way over cracks and pebbles and imperfections in the building as he took a seat beside Peter, mimicking the way his feet dangled over the edge. Their thighs were inches apart, and Peter couldn't help but think of how vulnerable the ghost was in this position.

“You’re not the only one,” Phantom said, a humorless laugh falling from his lips. Annoyed as he was at the interruption, Peter was tempted to say something about whether or not Phantom _could_ think, but decided that that would be too cruel, even though the ghost was obviously trying to manipulate him into feeling sympathy. Peter didn’t respond to him, leaving them sitting with the soundtrack of the city the only music accompanying their movie.

Phantom began fidgeting, playing with the edges of his gloves, shifting in place, running his fingers through his hair, clearly having trouble sitting still. Peter fought back an amused smile as he watched him try to avoid making direct eye contact with the Spider-Man mask. He never would have thought of a _ghost_ as having ADHD or simply a lack of patience, whichever this was. It probably wouldn't be fun to exist forever if you had either.

“You don’t have to stay, y’know,” he finally said, once the movement grew too obnoxious to handle. It was difficult to sink into his thoughts and let the world around him fade away when he could hear the incessant drumming of Phantom's fingers against the ledge.

“Thank _god_ ,” he breathed, his entire body slumping as he sighed in relief. “I’m not good at sitting still.”

“I can tell,” Peter responded dryly, but Phantom was already shooting into the sky at impossible speeds, the rush of air audible as he forced his way through it, even though Peter _knew_ he could make himself intangible. Why _fight_ your way through the air when you can make it's effect null.

He watched him fly higher and higher, becoming nothing more than a bright speck even with his enhanced vision, breaching the cloud cover and appearing almost like a star, a bright light against the dark tapestry of the night sky. Then he fell, headfirst, speeding toward the ground.

Peter stood in concern as he didn’t stop, falling faster and faster the longer he didn’t fight gravity, flinching as he hit the ground. But rather than become a splat of ectoplasm on the cold pavement, he disappeared, continuing to fall _through_ the earth.

“What the—” he breathed, confused as to what in the _world_ he could be doing. When he reappeared, letting out a cry of excitement as he shot back up, Peter understood.

He was _playing._ Just having fun, much like Peter did as Spider-Man on nights he needed to de-stress.

He found himself smiling at that despite himself. It sort of. . . humanized the ghost. The Fentons had made it seem like ghosts were incapable of feeling anything other than bitter anger and spite. But this was proof that they were probably exaggerating at least a bit. He wasn’t going to start befriending the ghost anytime soon and end up getting himself murdered, but he wasn’t as afraid of him turning on them for no reason.

With that thought, he closed his eyes and leapt off the rooftop, plunging toward the ground with nothing but a thread to keep him from death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's no Tony in this chapter and I'm sad because he's fun to write. This is just a filler chapter, but fear not dear readers! The plot will begin next chapter, which will probably be posted a week from today. I hope you enjoyed and have had a lovely week. Kudos and comments make my day!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter learns something interesting about Danny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to put something here but I have literally nothing to say so anyway--  
> Enjoy!

“I hate this,” Peter groaned dramatically, pouting at the papers surrounding him as though they personally had wronged him. The entire table he had taken over in the corner of the coffee shop was covered in them.

Pepper had told both Tony and Peter that she didn’t care if they kept working—probably knowing how impossible it would be to stop them—but that they needed to get out of the lab for at _least_ a few hours.

“You can’t just sit in the lab for all hours of the day, superheroes or not,” she’d scolded, shoving them out the door. "It's not _healthy._ Go and get some natural sunlight before you become even paler than the ghosts you're hunting." (She'd pointedly ignored their arguments that none of the ghosts they'd seen were _actually_ pale, in fact, Phantom was even fairly tan.)

Tony had just gone up to the common room, lazy as he was, where there was _some_ natural light, but Peter had decided to go and see Danny after checking that _yes, it was only 9,_ and he would actually be there. He had been there for an _hour_ and had yet to make any progress on figuring out how the ghosts were getting to New York from the "Ghost Zone". According to the Fentons, the only consistent portal was the artificial one in their basement, but they couldn’t think of any way that the ghosts could be coming and going between the worlds so frequently without a portal.

Adding onto Tony’s stress, Vlad Masters, a self-made billionaire who was, according to Tony (and Pepper, which meant it was probably true) a dick™, had bought a building in New York and was trying to convince Stark Industries to ally with DALV Co. and build ectoplasmic weapons. Despite the _many_ times Tony had come out and said that Stark Industries would have nothing to do with weapons designing and selling any more, and that SI had little to gain from them.

Yet Tony wasn’t sure what to do. While the weapons the Fentons had recently provided had been a _huge_ help in stopping the ghostly hordes, he wanted civilians to be able to protect themselves, and the Fentons were _hardly_ prepared to mass produce their inventions.

“What’s wrong?” Danny asked from across the room, where he was sweeping under tables, the chairs kicked carelessly out of the way so he could do so.

“Just work stuff,” Peter told him, not wanting to end up going on a rant about everything going on at the moment. Tony probably wouldn't care, even though it was likely fairly confidential information, but he didn't want to bore Danny to death because that would _hardly_ impress him. Danny set the broom aside and hung up his apron, and Peter realized with a start that he’d never seen him without it.

He was wearing blue skinny jeans and a simple white t-shirt, popping into the back room for a moment and coming back with a NASA sweatshirt on. It was a size too big for him—he _would_ have been concerned about it belonging to a boyfriend, but Danny had bemoaned his lack of a love life to him multiple times, and had also mentioned his love for clothes that were too big for him, so he would guess it was intentional—and he was honestly _adorable._ It wasn't fair that he could do such funny things to Peter's heart just by _existing._

“Where do you work?” he asked, grabbing a cup of coffee he’d made for himself and taking a seat next to Peter. They were closer than they’d ever been before, and Peter’s heart was racing much harder than it probably should’ve been. He was incredibly grateful he was the only one with enhanced hearing, because _that_ would've been awkward to explain.

“I’m a, uh, Stark Intern,” he answered, once the question finally registered in his brain and he racked his brain to try and remember where he worked.

“Really?” Danny asked in interest, not a trace of disbelief on his face. Peter knew that the story was a lot more likely now that he wasn’t a high school student, but he had to admit to himself that the belief was relieving after spending years being mocked by Flash for “lying” about it.

“My parents are working with Tony Stark right now,” he mentioned offhandedly, taking a sip of his coffee. Peter paused and gave him a weird look. “They’re so excited, won’t stop talking about it.”

“Who are your parents?” Peter asked. While it was likely they weren’t working _directly_ with Tony, and even if they were, there was a good chance he still wouldn’t know them, he might have heard of them. However, SI worked with _hundreds_ of people, so the chances were probably _really_ slim.

“Jack and Maddie Fenton,” he told him, phrasing it almost like a question.

Peter gasped, caught off guard. “Really?”

“You know them?” Examining him, Peter could sort of see the resemblance. He had his father's angular jaw, and his mother's lean stature. (He probably got his height from his mother as well.)

“I’m Ton—Mr. Stark’s personal intern. I’ve been helping him figure out the whole ghost situation.” He gestured to the papers surrounding them. “Trying to, at least.”

Danny leaned over Peter to look at his papers—which mainly consisted of theories as to where the ghosts may be coming from and ideas of how to track them down—causing Peter’s ears to redden.

“Did you try tracing the source of the radiation?” he asked.

“What?” Peter said dumbly, still trying to think straight with a hot guy draped over him (not that there was anything straight about the situation).

“Ectoplasmic contamination? All ghosts have an ectoplasmic _signature,_ which you can track them with, but if you’re testing a wider range, just looking for high levels of ectoplasm would work. Our portal is trackable like that, not that it’s a secret where it is—” Right, because if Danny was a Fenton that meant he grew up with a portal leading to the land of the undead under his bedroom. That was fine. “—so I’d assume any portal here would be too.”

The door chimed as someone came in, and Peter felt a tang of remorse, waiting for Danny to rush back to work, but he simply greeted “Sarah”, who apologized for running late. It was then that he recognized her as the coworker who was there sometimes in the morning when Peter came.

“Tony'll want to talk to you,” Peter told him when Danny didn’t bother getting up, though he _did_ stop leaning over him. Shame.

The Fentons hadn’t been able to come out to New York, claiming that they were in the middle of studying patterns in the Ghost Zone, and if they stopped to leave then they would have to start their data collection over from the beginning, which would take _forever._ But their son was _in_ New York, _and_ he seemed to know what he was talking about.

“My shift is over,” Danny shrugged, and Peter smiled, forcing himself not to blurt out “It’s a date!” because it was _absolutely not._

“Great,” he said instead, gathering up his papers that were probably useless.

* * *

Tony was already back in the lab by the time they made it back—he'd probably sat out for the bare minimum that Pepper required of him before rushing back, knowing him—Danny looking around them in awe at the advanced technology in the Tower.

“Hey kid,” Tony called cheerfully without looking back, probably hearing the elevator door slide open. He seemed in a much better mood than he had been in that morning, and Peter had to admit Pepper knew what she was talking about. “I hope you had more success than I did. I swear, there's _nothing._ ”

“I found us a Fenton,” he said, which prompted Tony to look back in confusion, making a face at Peter when he saw the stranger in his lab.

“Danny Fenton,” he introduced himself politely, much different than the sarcastic guy Peter was used to.

“Where the hell did you find him?” Tony asked, nodding slightly to recognize his introduction.

“He works at the coffee shop I’ve been going to,” Peter told him, half tempted to make up a ridiculous story about how they had met that he _knew_ Danny would have gone along with.

“Do you think you can help?” Tony asked, analyzing him.

To his credit, Danny didn’t get flustered under the gaze of the billionaire. (But according to him, he knew a billionaire already, so maybe he had practice.)

“You’re looking for where all these ghosts have been coming from, right? You should check levels of ectoplasmic contamination. Ectoplasm isn’t from this world, so it’s fairly easy to trace. Trust me, ghost tracking devices were one of the first things my parents developed, I don’t think they ever tried tracking our portal, though, since we know where it is, obviously.”

“So how do _you_ know it works?” Tony asked.

Danny shrugged, though the stiffness in it made Peter think he wasn’t quite telling the full truth. “My friends were interested, and so we messed around with stuff we probably shouldn’t have.”

“That’s a good way to get into a lab accident,” Peter frowned.

“Figured that one out for myself, thanks,” Danny said dryly, though he looked uncomfortable at the subject, rubbing at his left hand awkwardly, and Peter and Tony shared a concerned look. “Anyway, if you want to track a _portal,_ I’d suggest making the tracker only pick up large areas of ectoplasm. Portals don’t always have high power levels, even though my parents’ does. It depends on both how large and how stable the portal is.

“But, regardless of how powerful it is, it _is_ going to contaminate the air around it. And even though ghosts _do_ leave behind trace amounts of ectoplasm, they wouldn’t stay in the same place long enough to leave the amount that you would find around a ghost portal, which _isn’t_ going to move around.”

Tony looked impressed at the knowledge, most of it stuff they hadn’t even heard from his parents, but Peter was still kind of focused on the lab accident bit.

He still gave him a smug look though. Served him right for making fun of him for going back to that coffee shop so often.

“I think we’re gonna get along great, kid,” Tony said, pointedly ignoring Peter.

Danny just raised an eyebrow, as though he _hadn't_ just received the blessing of an insanely rich genius superhero. "Should we get started, then?"

Tony grinned. "It's like you read my mind."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Peter and Tony finally have some help figuring out the ghost stuff and I actually give you guys a small serving of plot for once.  
> I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments make my day! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny works in the lab with Tony and Peter, Pepper is awesome, Peter is still oblivious, and they finally learn where the ghosts are coming from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one kind of feels like a filler chapter to me even though I'm not sure it really counts as such.  
> Enjoy!

They spent the next few hours working on making a device to track down the source of the portals, making jokes and having fun as they worked. Danny’s patchwork of knowledge was  _ weird, _ to say the least. There were some bits of machinery that he could go on a tangent talking about for hours, yet when Peter asked him to hand him a wrench, he gave him a confused look and just said, “A  _ what?” _ making Tony squawk and look over in absolute horror.

Eventually, Pepper came down (looking like an absolute queen, as always) and forced them to stop for dinner lest one of them pass out from forgetting to eat (again). She looked surprised to see Danny, but when he grabbed Peter—who was complaining about having to leave—by the ear and dragged him over to the elevator, she smiled warmly, inviting him to stay and eat with them.

That was fine. Peter was happy to have Danny stay and eat with them, especially since he had some  _ awesome  _ stories.

But Pepper kept making faces at him and Peter, looking between the two of them. She raised an eyebrow every time she caught him looking at Danny (he was just listening to him talk, _ honestly, _ he was  _ not _ ‘gazing at him like a lovesick puppy.' Plus, it wasn't  _ his _ fault Danny had to be so damn cute when he talked, grinning brightly and practically choking on his food so he could get a joke in before the subject changed.) It was making Peter nervous, just because he  _ might _ have a crush on Danny didn’t mean he wanted everyone to know.  _ Especially  _ now that they had met Danny and knew who he was. Thankfully, Tony seemed oblivious to both Peter's crush and Pepper's looks.

After dinner, Peter and Tony immediately jumped up to go back to the lab, Danny following behind much slower.

“How are we supposed to power it?” Tony asked as they looked across the lab at the product of their work, a device that looked sort of like a computer, designed to track ectoplasm. They were lying sprawled out on the two couches that Tony had placed in the corner, forming an L. Tony was lying across one of them, using the armrest as a pillow and taking practically the whole thing for himself. Danny was leaning with his back against the armrest of the other, legs crossed with his feet on the couch, facing the other end of it. Peter was laying down with his head in Danny’s lap, who was running his fingers through his hair, his knees bent so they hung over the side of the couch (because even if Tony didn't care, he had been raised to never put his feet on the couch). They were right beside each other because of how the couches were set out, making it easy to talk to one another.

“It runs on ectoplasm,” Danny told them. “All of my parents’ designs do. It  _ should  _ work with something else, but ectoplasm would be the most—what’s the word? Convenient? No, that’s not it.”

“Efficient?” Peter suggested.

“Right, that's it. There’s ectoplasm in the guns my parents gave you, but I have a few vials back at my apartment that  _ wouldn’t _ leave you weaponless.”

“You have dangerous chemicals at your apartment?” Tony asked in concern.

“You have an apartment?” Peter asked in surprise, lifting his head up to look at him.

Danny shrugged. “I don’t know. I like being prepared? I have a bunch of ecto-weapons too, though I'm not sure my parents actually know that, otherwise they probably would have asked me to give them to you from the start.”

“How the hell do you have your own apartment?” Peter said. “You’re a nineteen-year-old kid fresh out of high school working at a  _ coffee shop _ in  _ New York _ .”

“You’re not the only one with a pet eccentric billionaire,” Danny reminded him, as though that was supposed to make him feel better.

“I’m not his ‘pet billionaire’. What are you  _ talking _ about?” Tony sputtered in the background, but Danny just winked at Peter.

“Who’s your billionaire?” Peter asked. “Tony probably knows them.”

“Vlad Masters.”

They both made noises of disgust and Danny laughed loudly, throwing his head back.

“Yeah, that pretty much explains the fruit loop. We have a sort of love/hate relationship. He can be somewhat tolerable when he’s not being a psychotic douchebag, surprisingly enough. Not that that happens often.”

“Why is he paying for your apartment when you clearly don’t like him?” Tony said, looking lost.

“He’s still holding out the hope that I’ll forsake my family name and become his evil prodigy.” Peter wasn’t sure if that was a joke, but he laughed anyway.

* * *

The next morning, Peter headed out, ignoring the slight drizzle that dampened his cheeks. There were several people in the shop, and he nodded politely at Sarah, who was taking orders for Danny to make.

He couldn’t help his grin when Danny noticed him and visibly perked up.

_ Same as usual? _ He mouthed, choosing not to disturb the frazzled college-aged guy who couldn’t figure out what to order.

Peter nodded.  _ Tony’s too _ , he mouthed back, taking a seat at the counter.

“Hey Danny, can you grab some ink cartridges from the back for me?” Sarah called back at him, glaring at the receipt that wasn’t printing. He nodded, disappearing.

“Is that your boyfriend?” the woman sitting next to him asked, looking to be in her early thirties.

Peter flushed bright red as he realized what she was implying, stammering out something incomprehensible.

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said with a smile, clearly misinterpreting his objections. “I think it’s adorable.”

“Oh, he’s not—we’re not. . . together,” he said unconvincingly.

The lady raised an eyebrow. “You better make your move soon, hun. He’s clearly as head over heels for you as you are him.”

Peter shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said quietly, not wanting to risk Danny potentially overhearing. “He’s so. . .” he sighed, looking away. “He’s too good for me.”

Danny came back out and Peter froze, hoping the woman wouldn’t continue the discussion where he could hear.

She just tossed her empty cup into the trash, standing up to leave.

“Good luck,” she said, winking at him as she left.

Peter watched her go, only jerking out of his thoughts when Danny set his drinks out in front of him, not bothering to call out his name for once.

“I have to get back to work,” he said. “but I’ll text you when I get off.” He grabbed Peter's hand and squeezed once before letting go. (It didn't mean anything. Danny was _always_ like that. He liked physical contact. _Don't make it a big deal, Peter.)_

Peter was about to object, to tell him that he didn’t have Danny’s number, but he was already heading back behind the counter to work on the next order.

Belatedly, he looked down at his drink, blushing when he realized there wasn’t a name at all, but a message. A phone number with  _ ‘Call me ;)’  _ written underneath it.

* * *

“Are you ready for this?” Tony asked, stepping back so that Danny could snap the vials of ectoplasm into place.

“I have a strong suspicion of where the portal might be,” Danny said darkly. “But I’m hoping I’m wrong. Because if I'm right then somebody's about to get their ass kicked.”

Tony and Peter shared a confused look at the creepy sentence, Peter shrugged as Tony silently asked him if he knew what Danny was talking about.

“Alright, let’s go,” Danny said, tapping something to turn it on. A hologram of the city popped up, certain sections lighting up green.

“FRI, can you show us the place that has the most ectoplasm?” Tony asked, watching as it zoomed in.

It stopped at a familiar building. Tony inhaled sharply, Peter’s jaw dropped, and Danny just let out a string of curses, looking annoyed but not surprised.

“Dammit Vlad,” he groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And there's Vlad, being a dumbass again. Several people have commented about Vlad being a sort of obnoxious uncle in this and I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of making me want to rewrite this entire fic with that concept. But I'm lazy so you get sad useless Vlad instead.  
> Even without good guy Vlad, I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments make my day! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter is stupid and Danny gets a visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot! Plot! Plot!  
> Enjoy!

Danny left directly after the revelation, though Peter grabbed his wrist before he could get away and made him promise not to do anything stupid. He looked conflicted, but finally answered by saying, “I offered to take Alice’s shift tonight since she has a test tomorrow morning.”

Peter took that to mean that he wouldn’t be _able_ to do anything stupid—since he’d been working—but he wasn’t satisfied.

Of course, Peter making _Danny_ promise not to do anything stupid didn’t mean _Spider-Man_ couldn’t do anything stupid (or at least, that was the plan until Tony told him to stay away from the ghosts until they made a plan to deal with Masters).

He _was_ surprised that Phantom had yet to make an appearance, however. He had been swinging around the city for a couple of hours already and yet he hadn't shown his face. He was typically there before Peter, taking down ghosts by the time Peter went out to patrol.

“Peter, there’s a robbery happening a few blocks away,” Karen alerted him, and Peter sighed, hoping it would be easy but grateful for the distraction.

Of course, Parker luck struck again, meaning everything went wrong.

First, it started raining, making him both cold _and_ wet. Second, he ran out of web fluid, which meant he couldn’t just stick the guys down and leave. And third, he got shot. The only good part was that the bullet went clear through, so he wasn’t going to have to dig around his chest for tiny bits of metal.

He tied the bad guys up with some rope the terrified store owner provided him with and resigned himself to the long walk back to the Tower.

“Peter, I would recommend calling Mr. Stark at this point,” Karen said, always the voice of reason.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Peter promised stubbornly. “I can make it, I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t know how long he walked for, stumbling in the darkness and shivering in the cold, arms wrapped tightly around his wound, trying to conserve every last bit of warmth.

“Spider-Man?” a familiar voice said. He looked up blearily, beginning to lose coherence of the situation. It was Danny, standing in the doorway of the coffee shop, eyes wide in shock and concern.

“Holy shit, you’re bleeding!” he cursed, grabbing Peter by the arm and dragging him inside.

The warmth of the building was a welcome relief, and Peter stood there for a moment to let the heat seep into his bones while Danny disappeared into the back. He came back with a first aid kit and a towel, taking off his apron and locking the door, closing the windows as well before coming over and using the towel to dry off the wound, shoving Peter onto a table so he could work.

“D’you know first aid?” Peter asked, his voice slurred. Danny cocked his head to the side as he spoke, expression unreadable, before shaking it and frowning.

“Yeah, I do. This is going to hurt,” he warned, pulling out rubbing alcohol and a clean rag to pour it onto.

Peter hissed in pain as he cleaned out the entrance wound before he was being gently turned onto his side.

“Oh thank _god,_ ” he said at the side of the exit wound. Which didn’t make sense to Peter. Weren’t more holes bad? “I am _not_ prepared to fish for bullets right now,” he grumbled to himself as he cleaned that out as well.

“I need you to take your suit off,” he said, voice sounding weird to Peter in his state.

“But. . . my identity."

“You can keep your mask on,” Danny said with a snort. “But I can’t bandage a wound with the fabric in the way. Unless you want me to _cut_ it off. . .”

Even as delirious as he was, Peter still knew Tony would be _pissed_ if he destroyed the suit again—especially since he rejected calling him. He pressed the spider emblem and let Danny pull it down to his waist, wincing as it brushed his wound.

He drifted in and out of consciousness as Danny worked, unaware of anything other than the faint music playing in the background that Danny hadn’t turned off and the rain tapping on the windows outside. Every once and a while, he’d be conscious enough to recognize the pain of having a wound stitched up, shifting away from the source of pain instinctively, but a cool hand would press against his upper chest, holding him in place gently.

He was completely unaware of how long he’d been out when he finally woke, groaning and sitting up slowly, careful not to pull at the wound that had been oh so carefully wrapped while he slept.

Danny was sitting in a chair beside the table he was laying on, sleeping with his head in his arms, but he jerked upright at Peter’s movement. Judging by the completely cleaned shop, Peter guessed that he must have finished closing up after caring for him. His mask was still in place.

“Are you feeling better?” Danny asked in worry, blinking sleep out of his eyes.

“Yeah,” Peter said, throat dry. “What time is it?”

Danny checked his phone, wincing at the number on the screen.

“Two in the morning. I have to open up in a few hours.”

“Sorry,” he said lamely, guilt eating at him. “I’ll be fine now. Thank you, Danny.”

Danny hadn’t moved since he started talking again, listening to him speak with that same strange intentness that Peter thought he had imagined earlier—having not associated that with him before.

“What?” he asked, slightly worried for his friend's sanity.

“I never told you my name,” Danny said slowly, his voice low and calm. He finally seemed to realize that he had been staring at Peter’s chest (the part not covered in bandages, at least) and looked up, cheeks tinged pink.

His gaze was sharp and precise, looking deeply for a sign beneath the mask.

“Peter?” he said quietly.

Peter, who had been tense with nerves, exhaled in defeat, slumping before stiffening as it disturbed his wound.

“Oh my god,” Danny groaned, dragging a hand down his face as Peter pulled the mask off, the fresh air a relief.

“I wanted to tell you,” he promised. “But. . . y’know.”

“Oh I’m not mad at you for keeping it a secret, I totally understand your reasoning and I would never expect you to tell me something as dangerous at that. I’m mad at you for getting yourself fucking _shot_ and then deciding to _walk home in the rain_ with a freaking _bullet wound_.”

Peter winced, aware of how bad that sounded. “I ran out of web fluid,” he said, his tone almost a question.

Danny gave him an exasperated look. “You have Tony Stark’s phone number.”

“You need to get some rest,” Peter said, quick to change the subject. “How soon do you have to open up?” He stood, wincing briefly.

“I still have a couple of hours,” Danny said, waving away his concerns with a hand. “And I’m _not_ going to bed. _I’m_ going to escort you to Stark Tower so you actually get professional medical attention.”

“I’ll be fine in a couple of hours!” Peter objected, his protests falling on deaf ears as Danny headed to the back for a moment. “I have enhanced healing,” he added moments later, realizing how dumb that sounded to someone who wasn’t aware of it.

“It’ll look weird if we walk back while you’re in your arachnid get-up,” he said, holding out a pair of sweatpants and his NASA sweatshirt. He eyed Peter up and down. “They might be a little small, but you’ll live. You’re lucky I like my clothes loose.” Giving up on arguing, Peter accepted the offered clothing and pulled it on, clutching his bloodied suit tightly in his hands.

The walk back to the Tower was quiet. They didn’t talk much, as the things they _wanted_ to talk about were not to be discussed in a public setting. The rainfall wasn’t nearly as heavy as before, and Danny had brought an umbrella, so they didn’t get very wet. Peter held his suit close to his chest, making sure it wasn’t recognizable to anyone who may look. His shoulder bumped against Danny’s as they walked, closer than was strictly necessary. (He just wanted to be under the umbrella. That was it. Definitely.)

Tony was passed out on a couch in the lab when they arrived, snoring softly. Danny grinned mischievously, leaned down, and whistled sharply in his ear, making him curse and shoot upright.

“You know, you should probably sleep in an actual bed one of these days,” he chirped cheerfully. Tony just looked at him like he wasn’t sure if he was actually conscious.

“Where did you come from?” he finally said. “How did you get in here?”

“I let him in,” Peter admitted, fighting back a smile when Tony jumped slightly, seeming like he didn’t even notice him before.

“Did you find something?” he said. “What time is it? _Please_ tell me you didn’t go after Masters after I specifically told you not to.”

“He didn’t,” Danny said, smiling brightly before his expression suddenly shifted to a glare directed at Peter. “He got himself shot.”

“Peter did?” Tony asked, eyeing the suit in his arms.

“Spider-Man did. Oh, and it’s two in the morning, in answer to your other question.”

Tony raised an eyebrow at Peter. “He figured you out?”

“I patched up the _bullet wound_ in his side is what I did,” Danny interjected.

“Thanks,” Tony said, still looking a little out of it. “Pete, go to the med bay. We’ll talk about this once I’ve had my coffee.”

* * *

“What can you tell me about Masters?” he asked as Peter left. Danny frowned at him.

“Tony, I like you. But you do _not_ want to get involved with Vlad Masters. No matter how prepared you think you are, you’re underestimating him. I know you don’t want me to go after him alone, but I’m used to Vlad. I can take care of this.”

Tony rolled his eyes, standing and wincing as he stretched, muscles protesting the action.

“There’s no way I’m letting a _teenager_ take on a potentially dangerous hostile on his own,” he said firmly. “End of discussion.”

“There’s no ‘potentially’ in it,” Danny said, as though that would make Tony _more_ likely to let him go off on his own. “He’s dangerous. But I’ve been dealing with him since I was fourteen, and, if it comes down to it—which it _won’t_ —I have a trump card I can pull on him. But I _need_ you to trust me to handle it.”

“No offense kid, but I just met you. It’s bad enough that you figured out Peter’s identity.”

Danny huffed in annoyance. “I’m not asking you to hand your lives over, I’m just asking you to hold off for a few days and give me a chance to take care of it.”

Tony paused, turning the options over in his head. On the one hand, he didn’t want to risk Danny getting hurt because he got in way over his head. But on the other hand, if Danny could deal with the problem _without_ making a big deal out of it, it would be _incredibly_ helpful. Plus, he _did_ seem to know what he was doing. He _might_ have been lying to get Tony to say yes, but it didn’t fit what he knew about him.

“Two days,” he said, regretting it the moment it left his mouth. “You have two days, Fenton. Be careful.”

Rather than give an overly sincere speech about how prepared he was or a flippant remark about how he was always careful, Danny just snorted.

“When has that ever helped me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) :) :)  
> Kudos and comments make my day!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny confronts Vlad and has a talk with Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't decide if I love this chapter or hate it, because it feels kind of anti-climatic. But either way, here you go.  
> Enjoy!

Phantom was silent as he strolled through the halls of the DALV headquarters the next night, the echo of his footsteps the only sound as he had foregone flying for the moment. You would think that a company that had an entire division on stopping ghosts would have better protection against them, but breaking in had been laughably easy. He had simply flown in invisibly through the front entrance. The few scientists that he had passed had taken one look at him and hurried the other way, likely to tell Vlad.

Good. That was why he was here.

He made his way to the basement of the building, sighing in defeat as the elevator doors opened and he saw the ghost portal set in the wall, an exact copy of his parents’ design.

“Took you long enough,” Vlad Plasmius said dramatically, lounging against the wall in the dark corner, face hidden in shadow, looking every bit like a supervillain. It would have been far more impressive if Danny hadn’t seen him screaming profanities at the TV because he couldn’t figure out how to work the remote on multiple occasions. (He had a video of one such spiel saved for an occasion in which Vlad was being especially dickish.)

“How ominous,” Phantom said dryly, not even the slightest bit amused. “Quite the supervillain act. I thought we had passed all of this?”

Vlad was a dick. He was pretty sure it was a fact of life. But after a few years of fighting, he’d mellowed out a little and wasn’t  _ nearly _ as bad. They didn’t exactly  _ trust _ each other, and every once and a while Danny had to come over and yank Vlad’s head back out of his ass, but it was much better than the whole arch-nemesis/murder uncle thing they’d had before.

So when Vlad had decided to move to New York and had offered Danny free housing to get him to follow, it had only taken a little bit of convincing to get him to come. They both liked being able to keep an eye on the other—even though Danny actually had yet to see Vlad in person since he moved—and Danny was  _ not _ going to pass up the chance to save up money for college along with making sure Vlad didn’t try to overshadow any more billionaires to make himself richer than he already was. The ghost problem in Amity Park had diminished _significantly_ , and since Dani had decided to live in the Ghost Zone for the time being, in order to learn more about ghost customs and laws (Danny had received many in-depth texts from her explaining things he'd never even _heard_ about), it was easy enough for her to set up a ghost alert on her phone so she could jump back to Amity Park to fight any ghosts that were causing problems, which was once a day at _most._

(There were many theories in Amity Park about what had happened. Some were convinced Dani had defeated Phantom in combat and took up his mantle of ghost fighting, and that he was dead (or at least, _more_ dead than before). Others believed Phantom had been destroyed by _another_ enemy and Dani was his poor friend/sister/daughter who agreed to protect his city as he could no longer do so himself. Others thought that Dani _was_ Phantom, and he had just changed form. (Both Phantoms had laughed themselves silly when they heard _that_ one.) There was a frankly depressing lack of people who accepted that Phantom was just busy at the moment and Dani was protecting the town while he was tied up—even _with_ his parents telling everyone that Phantom was in New York.)

Vlad shrugged, moving away from the wall and into the green light of the portal. “All I did was open a portal so I could harvest ectoplasm.”

Phantom’s green eyes widened in shock and annoyance, his aura twitching angrily. “Are you telling me that the only reason there are ghosts all over New York is because you couldn’t bother to close your portal when you weren’t using it? You’re lucky none of the more powerful ghosts have found it yet! Otherwise, I would be a  _ lot  _ more pissed than I am now.” His eyes flashed dangerously, but Vlad simply rolled his own. It had been far too long for either of them to be intimidated by the other.

“I’m not shutting it down, Daniel,” he said harshly.

“At  _ least _ close it unless you’re using it. Hell! You could even take a page out of my parents’ book and set up a ghost shield at the portal entrance so ghosts won’t even be  _ able _ to use it.”  _ That _ idea had come  _ way _ too late if Danny’s grades before his junior year were any indication (which they were).

Vlad huffed, wrinkling his nose in clear displeasure. “I’ll set up a shield, but that’s  _ it.” _

“Do it quickly,” Phantom said sharply, floating into the air. “I may not totally hate you anymore, but that doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass if you don’t follow through.”

“It’ll be up within the day,” Vlad promised, and despite his flippant tone, Phantom believed him. Vlad’s problem wasn’t that he didn’t  _ care _ (though the way he showed that care was sometimes _very_ strange), but rather that he never thought of anyone besides himself. It probably hadn’t even crossed his mind that Danny would be trying to get the ghosts back into the Ghost Zone or that said ghosts would terrify the New Yorkers.

It was obnoxious, and probably a sign of what a terrible person he was, but Danny would take that over the Vlad that tried to seduce his mother and murder his father any day.

His biggest problem  _ now _ would be figuring out how to tell Tony and Peter the problem was solved without seeming suspicious.

* * *

“You’re back,” Peter said from behind him, making Phantom jerk around in surprise. He had gone out for a leisurely flight after confronting Vlad, needing to clear his head. He must have been more lost in thought than he’d realized if he hadn’t even noticed the other hero approaching. Spider-Man cocked his head to the side, the white eyes on his mask adjusting minutely. “You weren’t out last night,” he added by way of explanation.

“I heard you got yourself shot,” Phantom said coolly, cringing internally moments later. The  _ last _ thing he needed right now was for Peter to figure out his identity. It was  _ weird _ , looking at Spider-Man and knowing it was the dorky guy who blushed every time Danny wrote something cute on his cup, who always ordered the same thing and yet looked surprised when Danny memorized his order. He was a complete and utter dork and possibly the sweetest guy Danny had ever met, and yet for some reason, he seemed to hate Phantom.

“Where did you hear that?” Spider-Man asked, seeming on edge.

“A little birdy told me,” Danny said, intentionally making his tone casual. “Didn’t you know? They have  _ all _ the best gossip.”

Peter snorted and Danny could picture him fighting back a smile the way he did every time Danny told a bad joke.

“Where were you?” Spidey asked, seeming to realize that Danny wasn’t planning on answering his previous question.

“Why do you care? I thought you didn’t like me.”

“I don’t,” he responded after a moment’s pause. “I was just curious.”

“Curiosity killed the spider,” he quipped, turning intangible and letting himself fall through the roof of the building they were on before Peter could respond.

* * *

Danny was  _ exhausted _ the next morning. He had stayed up late tracking down the ghosts that had already escaped the portal, depositing the  _ several _ full thermoses he had into a temporary portal he opened. Once he  _ had _ gotten to sleep, his dreams had been plagued with visions of electricity dancing up and down his skin, of green light blinding him, and the sounds of screaming—both his friends’ and his own. Adding onto that the fact that he had hardly gotten  _ any _ sleep the night before, what with Spider-Man/Peter’s surprise appearance, it was understandable that he was having trouble keeping his eyes open.

Peter showed up only five minutes after opening, the sky outside still dark, both from the barely rising sun as well as the clouds that filled the sky. He looked dead to the world and was grumbling something about Phantom as he held up one finger to show Danny to make only his order (which meant he was probably planning on staying awhile), stealing a table in the corner and rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Danny did  _ not _ want to have a conversation about his alter ego,  _ especially _ with as out of it as he was, but he was  _ dying _ to know why the Avengers seemed to despise him (pun intended, of course). He didn’t  _ think _ he’d done anything wrong, but sometimes he did dumb things without realizing it.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he brought Peter a cup of coffee and set his own on the table, taking a seat beside him and using the empty shop as a chance to slump against Peter’s shoulder and close his eyes for a moment.

Peter set the money for the order on the table and took a long sip.

“Fucking Phantom,” he said, yawning loudly and triggering a yawn in Danny as well.

“What happened?” Danny asked, not looking up. He didn’t necessarily  _ like _ having to defend himself—it felt a little self-gratifying—but when no one else was standing up for him, it was all that was to be done.

“I don’t  _ get _ him,” Peter said, setting his drink down so he could wave his arms around while he spoke. Danny whined a little as his pillow was disturbed. “He’s supposed to be this evil, manipulative ghost, but all he does is help track down ghosts and make bad jokes.”

Danny wanted to interject that his jokes were hilarious,  _ thank you very much _ , but something else in the sentence caught his eye.

“Who told you that Phantom was an evil, manipulative ghost?”

Peter gave him a weird look, twisting his neck around awkwardly to do so. “Besides your parents’ years of work and study and all the proof they have of his less than good intentions?”

Danny frowned. “Peter, Phantom’s not  _ evil. _ My parents are wrong.”

“Are you possessed?” Peter asked dryly, taking another sip of coffee. “Because I spent _two_ _hours_ listening to them rant about how awful he is.”

Danny rolled his eyes, really beginning to wish he’d told his parents his secret so they wouldn’t have  _ turned the freaking  _ Avengers _ against him. _ “Peter, my parents believed ghosts were evil before they ever  _ met _ one. And when the evidence didn’t support that theory, rather than change it, they  _ made _ the evidence support it. Phantom’s been on our side from the beginning. He’s saved my life countless times and I know  _ why _ he did the bad things he did. All of which were a mixture of possession, mind control, and other ghosts replicating him, by the way. I’ve known him for five years, Peter, he’s not evil.”

Peter looked confused, as well as slightly concerned. “Are you telling me you’ve been in  _ contact _ with him this entire time? Is that how you planned to stop Masters?”

He hesitated, hoping to verge away from potentially secret revealing topics. “I’ve already talked to Vlad, Peter. And yes, Phantom did help me do that.” Not  _ technically _ a lie. “He shouldn’t be letting any more ghosts in through his portal.”

Peter still looked conflicted, and Danny held back a frustrated sigh.

_ “Peter,” _ he said, enunciating his name. He put a hand on top of his. “Please trust me. Phantom’s  _ not _ an enemy.”

Sighing, Peter pulled his hand away and refused to meet Danny’s gaze. “I can’t trust him. We don’t know enough about him and I  _ won’t _ endanger us all by putting trust in someone who might not deserve it. But I promise I won’t be openly hostile towards him anymore.”

_ You already put your trust in him, _ Danny thought, grateful he at least made a little bit of progress, though not nearly as much as he’d hoped. Just because he was  _ used _ to people hating his ghost half didn’t make it any easier. Especially when said person is his unfairly adorably attractive friend.

“Alright,” he said after they sat in silence for a moment, fighting back another yawn. “I have to get back to work or I’m going to fall asleep right here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it. I feel like Danny and Vlad's relationship is really complicated in this. Because they don't necessarily _hate_ each other anymore, but they don't trust each other either. It's this kind of, "okay I don't really like you but I have to get along with you because you're the only other person like me (besides Dani, obviously) and we need to stick together." I feel like Vlad's just _super_ self-absorbed. He tends to think about what _he_ wants and what _he_ needs, not realizing what effect that might have on the people around him.  
> But anyway, there's not much Peter and Danny fluff in this chapter, but I felt like I had to put in that bit about Danny almost falling asleep on him because I'm a sucker for both sleepy Danny or Peter and a Danny that's just super affectionate and always in people's space without realizing it. (But it's okay because Peter craves physical affection too.)  
> I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments make my day! :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Peter meet Phantom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's really short, but it's also _very_ important, soooo. I'm not sure if I'll be able to update on time next week, since we'll be visiting family and we might be driving, but I will do my best to get the next chapter out ASAP.  
> Enjoy!

“I don’t see why you can’t just  _ tell _ me,” Tony whined, not that he would ever admit that that was what he was doing.

Danny rolled his eyes at his antics. Honestly, the world saw Tony Stark as a suave and cool billionaire, but he was just a giant child. “All that matters is that I took care of it. Right?”

Peter raised an eyebrow at that but (wisely) elected not to comment.

It was surprising how easily Danny fit into their lab time. Tony and Peter would work while Danny chilled on the couch, making jokes and showing Peter memes every once and awhile. Sometimes Tony would ask Peter for help (or vice versa) and Danny would come over only to make up an absolutely ridiculous idea. The annoying part was that half of the time that would end up leading them to a logical solution.

It had been a few days since Danny had confronted Vlad, and—as he tracked down the last of the ghosts that had gone through the portal before the shield was put up—the number of ghost sightings had trickled to a stop. Naturally, Tony wanted to know exactly what had happened. Danny had been avoiding their questions, so far, but their suspicion had yet to die down.

Peter cursed as something exploded, quickly shouting out “I’m fine!” before they could panic.

“Did you threaten him or something?” Tony asked. “You made it sound so awful before, and now you’re just acting like it was nothing.”

“It  _ would _ have been awful if  _ you’d _ confronted him,” Danny shot back. “You can’t even  _ begin _ to imagine just how wrong it could’ve gone. He knows how to deal with me and I know how to deal with him. And either way, your problem is solved, so I don’t know why you’re still complaining.” As he spoke, he snapped a picture of Peter’s soot-stained face, his hair sticking up adorably. Peter gave him a look, face visibly red even through the ash when Danny mouthed  _ ‘so cute’ _ to tease him (not that he was lying).

“Yeesh, get a room,” Tony said, gagging dramatically. Peter wasn’t the only one blushing any longer, both of them stuttering out explanations about how they’re  _ not flirting Tony, honest, just teasing each other as all friends do. _

“You’re lucky the UN didn’t want to get involved with all this ghost shit,” he pointed out, ignoring their twin shouts of  _ ‘Language!’ _ . “At least this way it’s just me bothering you.”

“What we  _ need _ to do is talk to Phantom,” Peter said. “That way we can figure out if he’s trustworthy.”

“And how are we supposed to get him to come,” Tony challenged. “Danny’s clearly not willing to share and I  _ doubt _ he’d come willingly.”

“Not when you’ve acted like total  _ dicks _ to him ever since he showed up,” Danny interjected coolly.

“Look, I know he’s your friend, but you have to understand that—” Tony began, only to get cut off by Danny, who was  _ long  _ over this conversation.

“That what? That because he’s a  _ ghost _ it automatically means he’s guilty until proven innocent? You didn’t hesitate to trust that Spider-Man was a hero, right? Why isn’t this the same?”

“Peter was a  _ child _ , Danny. Phantom’s probably been around for centuries.”

“Oh yeah? And how old does he look, exactly?” The fact that his ghost half didn’t age equivalent to his human counterpart was a bit of a sore spot for Danny, though it did help with keeping his secret. Phantom didn’t age as fast as Fenton, something to do with the fact that he was the Ghost King. The status was apparently supposed to give the king immortality, but due to the fact that the Ring and Crown didn’t seem to know what to do with his human half, as well as that it probably subconsciously sensed just how much he  _ didn’t want immortality _ , it only slowed the aging of his ghost half.

So even though Danny had been half-ghost for five years and he was nineteen now, when he transformed, he only looked sixteen (maybe seventeen).

Tony flinched, clearly not liking that fact. “We’ll stop talking about this until we have a chance to talk to Phantom,” he finally said. “If he proves trustworthy then I’ll believe that you’ve taken care of it.”

_ “Thank  _ you,” Danny said, trying not to think about how they planned to get in contact with Phantom. “I’m going to head out. See you tomorrow morning, Peter.”

* * *

Phantom laid on the roof of a skyscraper, trying to find constellations in the polluted sky. The night air was refreshing, for once a clear sky rather than the rain that had plagued them for the past few weeks. He had been on edge the entire night, mulling over what Tony and Peter had said earlier. He kept expecting Iron Man and Spider-Man to appear out of nowhere and kidnap him.

A chill ran up his spine, an icy cold breath puffing out from between his lips and dissipating quickly. He sat up quickly. While it still wouldn’t be impossible that some of the ecto-pusses or something similar had been hiding and were still loose in the city, the specter he sensed felt more powerful than that, more like one of his more well-known enemies from Amity Park.

Moments later, he heard the tell-tale sound of sirens and screaming. Following the sound, he found Iron Man and Spider-Man locked in battle with a familiar ghost, the streets already vacant of civilians that could be used against the heroes.

“Skulker!” Phantom snapped, said ghost immediately looking up at him (somehow paling despite being in a metal suit). “How did you get here?” he interrogated, ignoring the heroes (that had paused to catch their breath) for the time being. “Did Plasmius let you through?”

“I don’t answer to you,” Skulker said shortly, firing a shot that Phantom dodged easily. He might have been giddy with the thrill of a fight had there not been people (read: Tony and Peter) in danger.

“So that’s a yes then?” Phantom said, rolling his eyes.

Skulker frowned, dodging a blast of green fire from Phantom’s palm. “He tried to send me back, actually.”

“Really? Good for him.”

Growling, Skulker pressed something on his suit that caused an unfamiliar missile to shoot at Phantom, which was easily escaped. At least ectoplasm wasn’t harmful to humans.

“You know I’m in charge of you, right?” he pointed out, as most ghosts seemed to forget that he was now King of the Dead. Skulker didn’t listen, having already fled in the direction of the DALV building. Whatever, Vlad would let him back through to the Ghost Zone.

“Watch out!” Spider-Man cried from below, and Phantom ducked as the missiles he had written off as harmless came back around. They were clearly seeking his ecto-signature, and he was unprepared to dodge again as they spun back around faster than should be possible, exploding in his face and leaving his head feeling cloudy at the loud noise and heat.

He didn’t even realize he was falling until he hit the ground, touching his chest that  _ burned _ with a pain he had become accustomed to in ghost fighting. His glove was stained with his own ectoplasmic blood that was spreading fast, and he hardly noticed Tony and Peter running up to him, the former with his head plate down and the latter fully masked.

“Dammit Vlad,” he mumbled, recognition flashing across Tony’s face at the words he had spoken weeks earlier.

The last thing he saw before passing out was a brilliantly white ring of light forming around his waist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) :) :)  
> I'd say that I'm sorry but I don't really feel like lying. The whole thing with Phantom aging slower isn't something that I've ever used and that I won't be using in the future unless it's explicitly mentioned, but I wanted to make it more of a struggle for Tony and Peter because they were told Phantom was evil, but he _looks_ like a child. Plus, if he's aging slower, it'll take longer for the Fentons to notice, because I think they would feel like they had to change some of their theories if they realized that Phantom was aging like he were still alive.  
> I know I don't always respond to comments, but I do read every single one of them and they always make me smile, so thank you to everyone who's done so. :) I hope you enjoyed!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny and Peter have a talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle your seatbelts because this is my absolute _favorite_ chapter. I actually retyped the entire thing to edit it and I'm very glad I did, but I also did so very fast because I'm supposed to be visiting people so if there are any weird mistakes that's because I was trying to type like the wind every time I had the chance.

Danny woke to the slow and steady beeping of a heart monitor. Some part of him knew it should  _ probably _ be beeping faster, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care, exhausted as he was.

It took him a moment to remember what had happened (because he knew with a certainty that the bed he was lying in wasn’t his own) but the moment he did his eyes snapped open to see white ceiling tiles above him. An unfamiliar weight held down his legs, and he had a moment of panic that he’d been tied up before he looked down to see Peter sleeping in a chair beside him, his head and chest sprawled out over him. There was a cup of coffee from the shop Danny worked at on the bedside table—probably long since cold—and his heart panged at the simple  _ ‘Peter’  _ written on the side in swooping cursive letters (he would’ve done better).

He attempted to sit up, freezing in place when Peter groaned softly, eyes squeezing tighter. But he only shifted a little before his breathing evened out once again and he was back to being out like a light.

(He tried not to think of what it meant that he was in a hospital instead of a cage, hoping that Peter’s presence was sign enough that they didn’t plan on hurting him.)

“You’re awake,” Tony said, Danny’s head jerking up to look at him. It had been a while since anyone had successfully snuck up on him (discounting ghosts/half ghosts). He was leaning against the doorway, acting nonchalant as always, but the bags under his eyes and his rumpled clothes and hair made it less believable.

“I am,” he said, hoarsely and cautiously, not quite sure how to respond to that. He still didn’t know where he stood with them, now that they knew  _ oh god they  _ **_knew._ **

“Calm down, kid,” Tony said with a frown. “You know we’d never hurt you, right?”

“Right,” he said awkwardly, some of the tension in his muscles dissolving (though not much). “Are you mad?” he asked after a moment of silence, looking up at Tony nervously.

“Somewhat,” Tony said after a small pause to consider the question, coming in to sit on the side of him that Peter wasn’t occupying. “I see why you didn’t tell anyone—I’ve spoken to your parents, after all—but Peter’s pretty upset—it would be hard  _ not _ to be when you realize someone you trusted has been lying to you from the start.”

Danny winced at the accusation. “I wanted to tell him,” he whispered, looking down at his friend who looked so peaceful as he slept. It felt like so long ago that he got himself  _ shot _ , bleeding out right in front of him. “But I was afraid. I’m not exactly. . . human. I was scared he wouldn’t accept me. It's not exactly something people are used to.”

“Masters is like you, isn’t he?” Tony said, though it obviously was a question he was almost positive he knew the answer to. His voice was low, not quite dangerous but almost there.

“Yeah,” Danny admitted. “He is.”

Tony snorted, looking way out of his depth.  _ “God, _ the world used to make sense, y’know. Now there’s superhumans and aliens and  _ ghosts.” _

“And teenage spider-kids to parent?” Danny added, hoping to diffuse the tense atmosphere.

“I’m not  _ parenting _ him,” Tony objected. “I’m mentoring. There’s a difference.”

“Not much,” Danny grumbled.

“You need to shut your face, smartass,” Tony said, which Danny was pretty sure just meant he didn’t have a good argument.

“I’m just saying it as it is,” he said cheekily, not bothering to disguise his grin. “I don’t see the problem.”

“You’re a little shit, you know that, right?”

Peter groaned and shifted, squeezing his eyes shut as he sat up, blinking to wake himself. He locked eyes with Danny, who had frozen in place.

“Hi,” he said, any sense of cool he’d had while bantering with Tony vanishing as he half waved awkwardly.

Tony stood from where he had just sat down, pointing between the two of them. “Talk it out like adults, ‘kay? Don’t avoid the issue.”

“What? Like you?” Peter snarked, but Tony just left, closing the door behind them.

The atmosphere of the room instantly became heavy, Danny fiddling with the edge of the blanket, refusing to look up and meet Peter’s eye as he stared him down.

“Danny,” he said, so quiet he almost missed it.

He forced himself to look up, immediately wishing he hadn’t. Peter’s face was filled with so much hurt and betrayal it made him want to curl in on himself.

“You lied to me,” he said shortly, not bothering to gloss over the issue.

“So did you,” Danny shot back. “With Spider-Man.”

“But I  _ told _ you I was Spider-Man, you  _ knew _ I was looking for you, and you  _ still _ lied to me. I  _ trusted _ you.”

Danny cringed, looking away. “I’m sorry,” was all he could think to say, guilt thick in his voice.

“For what?” Peter’s voice was cool and collected, the opposite of how Danny felt. “For pretending you weren’t Phantom? For acting like you just wanted to be my friend? For pretending you didn’t know I was Spider-Man from the start?” He was standing by then, his voice beginning to waver. Danny froze in confusion as he realized what he was saying. “For acting like you actually cared? Fo-for leading me on and making me think you might actually  _ like _ me? For doing  _ exactly _ what you said you’d never do?”

He paused, eyes rimmed red with tears, glaring fiercely at Danny. “You manipulated me, Phantom. You made me think you were this sweet, snarky human guy who told bad puns and helped random superheroes,” he snorted, waving his arms around as he spoke to emphasize his point. “But all along you just wanted me gone.”

_ “Peter,” _ Danny said desperately, grabbing the hands that were pointed at him accusingly, mentally examining his conversation with Tony to see if he had ever mentioned what he really was. “There’s been a huge misunderstanding between all of us.”

He pulled Peter’s hands to his chest and let him feel the tell-tale sound of his heart thumping in his chest, as though the heart monitor wasn’t proof enough.

“I may not be fully human, but I  _ am _ human, Peter, just only half. I don’t know how to prove it, but I  _ swear _ I didn’t know you were Spider-Man until that night. I never wanted to manipulate you, or to hurt you. I was just trying to take care of the ghosts, I  _ promise. _ I didn—” he tripped over his words, unable to look Peter in the eye for a completely different reason than before. “I always cared, Peter. Probably more than I should. I still do.”

Peter seemed to be using his heartbeat as an anchor, eyes closed and tears dripping silently down his chin.  _ God, _ he had probably been a mess. Danny could picture him trying to figure things out and coming to all the wrong conclusions—thinking that Danny didn’t  _ even _ care about him when it was the exact opposite.

“You didn’t know?” he asked, clearly trying (and failing) to keep his voice steady.

“Peter, I swear to the Ancients that I didn’t know you were Spider-Man or that you knew Tony Stark until you told me.”

“You aren’t evil or-or manipulating me?”

Danny snorted. “I mean, I’d probably disagree even if I  _ was, _ but no, I’m not. I really did want to be your friend.”

“Why?” Peter’s eyes snapped open, searching for something in Danny’s.

Danny tried to ignore his cheeks growing warm as he spoke, not willing to hide anything anymore. Keeping secrets from the people he cared about had caused enough problems in his life. “Because you were cute, and sweet, and awkward, and smart. And you always got so flustered when I would draw you something or write a dumb name on your cup of coffee. And every time I talked to you you’d get all excited and use your hands to tell the stories, and you hit me in the face that one time but we were laughing too hard for you to apologize.” He felt like he couldn’t stop, the confession pouring out of his mouth as the dam he’d carefully constructed burst. “And every time you get an idea you just perk up and your eyes get all wide and you start scrambling for a way to write it down. And you came out in the middle of a crazy bad storm just to get a cup of coffee when you literally  _ live _ in a tower that sells coffee, which was stupid as hell but also ridiculously endearing and—”

He hadn’t even realized how close they’d gotten while he spoke. Their noses were almost touching, and Danny could feel Peter’s hot breath on his face.

“Go on,” he breathed, expression unreadable.

Danny swallowed. “Every time you walk into a room you can just  _ feel _ your energy because you’re so happy and bright. And you’re so kind to everyone, even the people that don’t deserve it. And you’d sit around for hours just to talk to me so I wouldn’t be lonely and—”

Peter was the one who finally closed the distance, their lips meeting in a way that sent shivers down Danny’s spine. He pulled away after a moment, but Danny lifted a hand to cup his cheek and pulled him back in, closer than before, Peter wrapping an arm around him and lifting him up with superhuman strength so that they were both standing.

It felt so  _ right, _ even though his heart was pounding and he was sure he was blushing bright red.

Pulling apart, the minuscule height difference was glaringly obvious as Danny had to look up to meet Peter’s gaze.

“Is that all?” he said, lips curved up in a smile that lit up his whole face, even as Danny was sure he was going for a smirk. The weight that had been hanging over him since he first woke up was gone, replaced by joy.

“I’ve yet to hear why  _ you _ wanted to be  _ my  _ friend,” he retorted, running his fingers through Peter’s hair.

Peter snorted in amusement. “Well, you see, I went out to go get coffee because I apparently don’t spend enough time outside, and there was this really cute guy working there. And he told really bad jokes and acted super smooth even though he was  _ obviously _ a giant nerd, and, as a giant nerd myself, I was required to befriend him.”

“Oh, really?” Danny asked in mock interest, fighting back a smile as Peter nodded seriously.

“And it turned out that he was dorky and sweet and he got excited every time I walked through the door, and I  _ may or may not have _ memorized his work schedule so I could show up when I knew he’d be there, because he was just so fun to be with, and I hadn’t really hung out with another teenager for a while. You see, my friends all decided to go straight into college, so I’ve been surrounded by old people all year.”

“How terrible.”

“Oh, it’s horrendous. But then it turned out that this guy was the son of some people my boss—”

Danny let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like ‘dad’ and Peter gave him a sharp look.

“He was the son of some people my  _ boss _ worked with, so he came to help us out. And he gave really dumb ideas that somehow helped us figure out better ones, and it felt so comfortable just having him there, even when he wasn’t interacting with us. He just felt. . .  _ right.” _

Danny pulled him into another kiss, and he found himself hoping that it would always send that spark down his spine, that thrill of love.

“I’m guessing you want an explanation,” he said once they parted, wanting nothing more than to just stay like this with him forever, but knowing he needed to tell them.

Peter smirked. “I think Tony can wait a few minutes.”

Danny echoed his grin. “I think you’re absolutely right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of the first things I wanted to happen when I was planning this fic, and I was cackling like a madman when I wrote it because I loved it so much, so I hope you enjoyed it as well.  
> All of your comments are wonderful and make me blush so hard, you guys are wonderful. I hope you enjoyed! :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny explains everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO SORRY this took so long!! We had someone over for a long time, then my computer randomly shut down while I was editing and wouldn't start back up for _literally_ hours. **And** I ended up rewriting most of this because I wasn't happy with it, which took a while. But it's here!! Now all we have left is the epilogue, which I... still need to finish writing. Yikes.  
> Enjoy!

“I’m half-ghost,” Danny began with, sitting cross-legged on the couch in the common room on Tony’s floor. They had wordlessly decided that the medbay wasn’t the place for this kind of conversation. “When I was fourteen, I accidentally turned on my parents’ ghost portal while I was inside of it and it killed me. Then it somehow un-killed me. I don’t know the details, I was too busy being terrified about what had happened to me to wonder _how_ it had happened to me.”

“So you really are Danny Fenton?” Tony confirmed, sitting across the couch from him and Peter. “There’s no… you didn’t like, steal his face and identity?”

Danny snorted. “No, I didn’t steal my face. I _am_ Danny Fenton. I’m just… also Danny Phantom.”

“And you really meant to help from the start?” Peter confirmed, seated beside him with a few inches of space between them (they hadn’t really had the time to discuss what was going on between the two of them, but they definitely didn’t want to see how they’d react to any innuendos Tony made.

“Meant to help?” Danny shot him an offended look. “I helped more than _you_ did.”

“To be fair,” Tony objected. “You were the only one with any experience.”

“I’ll have you know I went into my first ghost fight with no experience,” Danny sniffed, acting upset. “It was a little old lady who was mad we changed the lunch menu, so she trapped my ultra-recyclo vegetarian friend in several hundred pounds of meat and turned into a meat monster that tried to destroy the school.”

Silence.

“I honestly can’t tell if you’re joking,” Peter said, sharing a concerned glance with Tony.

“Yeah, no, it’s kind of sad that I’m not.”

“So what did you do?” Peter asked, cocking his head to the side. “If you’ve had your ghost powers that long, I mean. Does anyone else know?”

“My friends Sam and Tucker were there when I got my powers, and my sister Jazz figured it out on her own. Um, Vlad knows, pretty much every ghost knows. Oh! My friend Valerie knows, but I didn’t tell her for a while cause she kind of hated Phantom’s guts.” He grimaced. “Yeah. That was… not my smartest move. She kicked my ass, but we’re all good now.

“And, well, to answer your other question, I fought.” he shrugged. “I was the one who turned on the portal, which meant it was my fault that all these ghosts were getting through. It was my job to stop them.”

“Masters is a half-ghost like you?” Tony asked. “Not completely dead? I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was, he’s a dick, but it would make sense if he was like you.”

Danny grimaced. “Yeah. He’s—yeah. But you can’t tell anyone! We’ve been at a sort of stalemate since we met and if he finds out you know then… it would be bad. He can’t tell anyone my identity since if he did I would tell everyone his, and I can’t tell anyone _his_ identity since he’ll spill mine. I only told you guys since you figured out mine, but if he learns that you know he might go after you.”

He gave them a moment to take that in, before adding the final nail to the coffin that he _knew_ would convince them to keep his secret and that he was pretty positive would make them keep Vlad’s.

“Plus, I’m not sure the government will care about the half-human part if they decide they want to cut either of us up.”

Peter flinched at the words and Tony’s frown deepened.

“The Guys in White?” He really shouldn’t have been surprised that Tony knew of them.

Danny made a face, which was as good as a yes.

“So let me get this straight.”

“Tony, no one in this room is straight,” he said dryly, making him roll his eyes.

“You basically _died_ at fourteen, didn’t tell anyone because you were afraid your own _parents_ would try to _kill_ you, became a superhero because you felt responsible for literally everything that had nothing to do with you, and you have an entire _government agency_ dedicated to tracking you down?”

“You forgot the evil future version of me that destroyed the world,” Danny added with no emotion, assuring that they wouldn’t be able to tell whether or not he was serious.

“I don’t even want to know,” Tony groaned. (He made a mental note to find a way to get the GIW disbanded.)

Danny looked up and caught Peter’s gaze, both immediately blushing and turning away. Tony narrowed his eyes at them, but Danny didn’t bother trying to explain.

“How long was I out for?” he asked, hoping to keep him off of their backs.

“It’s three in the afternoon,” Tony answered, not looking satisfied but not pushing. “Not even a full day.”

“I texted Sarah on your phone,” Peter told him before he could panic about missing work. “She was the only person that I knew who worked with you. I just told her I was your friend and that you were in an accident and probably wouldn’t be able to make it for a few days.”

Danny sighed in relief, before pausing. “Wait, how did you get into my phone?” He had a very complex password, constantly worried about someone getting into his phone and figuring out something he didn’t want them to know (not that he kept sensitive information on it).

“I used your hand to get in with a fingerprint,” he admitted sheepishly.

“I guess that works.”

Tony looked up at the ceiling, mouthing words as though going through a list in his head. “Do we have anything else to cover? ‘Cause I feel like we’re done here. Wait! How did that ghost get through if Masters closed the portal?”

“He didn’t close the portal,” Danny told him, figuring there was no point in hiding it any longer. “I just told him to put a ghost shield over it so no ghosts could get through but he could still get the ectoplasm he wants. The only reason Skulker was here is because he had come through before Plasmius—er, that’s Vlad’s… ghost name, I guess is what you’d call it?—closed the portal. He just didn’t go back to the Ghost Zone when Vlad told him to.”

Tony shook his head, a slightly crazed smile on his face. “We have a lot to learn from you, don’t we?”

Danny shrugged lightly, much more comfortable than he had been when he woke up.

“I’m willing to teach you.”

* * *

Phantom flipped through the air freely, falling and soaring and shooting around like he was born in the sky. Flight was easily his favorite power, no competition. When he was a kid, he had dreamed of flying, as most kids do, but he had never imagined he’d actually get to _do_ so.

Flying in New York felt nowhere near as natural as it did in Amity Park, there was so much more light pollution, there was hardly _any_ ambient ectoplasm here (Normally, the ambient ectoplasm gave him energy, which was one thing he hadn’t been prepared to lose. He had taken to drinking straight up ectoplasm every night to make up for the energy loss.), and on top of that, the city itself just wasn’t his home like Amity was.

But, regardless, flight was flight, and he still loved it no matter what.

He landed softly on a random rooftop, taking in the view of the city set below them. The _thwip_ of web-shooters and the _thud_ of Peter landing on the rooftop behind him were easily distinguishable from the city sounds.

“Hey,” Peter—er, Spider-Man—said lightly. Phantom tried to hold back his grin for a moment, but he couldn’t help but allow it to spread across his face as his boyfriend— _boyfriend!!!_ —came up to stand beside him, bumping their shoulders together.

“Can I help you, Spider-Man?” he said airily (as though his expression didn’t give away everything), pretending as though things were the same as they’d been a few days before.

Spider-Man huffed. “Very funny.”

“I saw you, like, ten minutes ago. Did you just miss me that much?”

“Can the answer be yes?”

Phantom laughed, pressing a kiss to Peter’s cheek through the mask. “Needy.”

“Oh please, we both know out of the two of us, _you’re_ the worst.”

Phantom sputtered in offense. “Wh-but-I—you need to shut your annoying face.”

Peter pulled his mask off, leaving his bright eyes and curly brown hair in its wake.

“Annoying, huh?”

Phantom shrugged. “Never said it wasn’t cute, too.”

Peter laughed, pecking him on the lips. “You’re a dork,” he said fondly, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him to face him, pressing their foreheads together.

Danny hummed, comfortable. “Am not.”

“Are too. But it’s okay, ‘cause you’re _my_ dork.”

Danny looked up and pulled him into another kiss.

“I can live with that.”

“Oh, that’s good. I have to go, we just got off of a mission and I still need to go debrief with the others. I just saw you up here and wanted to say hi. Speaking of, we still need to introduce you to them.”

“For sure,” Danny nodded. “Bye—” his eyes widened as Peter turned and pulled the mask back on, mind flashing back to a day so long ago. So normal, yet so important. His grin turned cheeky. “Bye Peeta!”

Spider-Man nearly fell off the roof, and Phantom couldn’t help the laughter that spilled from his lips as Spidey turned around and gave him another kiss, this one far deeper, conveying all the words they had yet to say to each other.

Phantom blinked, his cheeks tinted green and his lips parted from the suddenness of the kiss.

“It’s Peter,” Spidey said, and he flipped off the rooftop to go meet with the other Avengers at the Compound—

—leaving Danny to fly off alone, fighting back a smile as he made his way back to the Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally only the first scene, but I didn't like the ending so I added the second part, plus I liked the symbolism of Spider-Man and Phantom seeing each other once again, no longer against each other. And the whole fact that the last line of this chapter is almost the same as the last line of the first chapter makes the writer in me very happy.  
> Even if I don't respond, I _do_ read every one of your comments and I treasure each of them! Thank you for commenting/leaving kudos/even just silently following along.  
> I hope you enjoyed! One more chapter to go!!


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All is right with the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have the epilogue! I had too many ideas to write just one scene, so I wrote the several ideas that I had and shoved them together, so each line break is a time skip. This is also waaaay longer than all the other chapters, so you're welcome for that I guess.  
> For a while I was worried I wouldn't be able to post today since the wifi at the place I'm in is _weird_ , but luckily I figured it out!  
> Warning: this is incredibly cheesy  
> Enjoy!

Christmas Eve morning dawned bright and early, with everyone in the Tower groaning and telling FRIDAY to  _ ‘shut the goddamn blinds we’re trying to  _ **_sleep_** ’.

“Hey Danny,” Peter whispered, tapping the back of his head with his hand that was being used as a pillow. They were balanced precariously on the couch, Danny shoved against the back and Peter inches away from falling off. One of Peter’s arms was under Danny’s head while the other wrapped around his side, his hand hovering over the small of Danny’s back with the blanket that someone had thrown over them in the night clutched in his fist. Danny had an arm under Peter’s neck and the other under his armpit, pulling him closer in his sleep so that Peter could feel his heartbeat through his shirt and their noses overlapped. Their legs were a mess, tangled in the blanket and the other person, feet sticking out of the cocoon they’d made.

“Are you gonna get up?” Peter asked, almost vibrating with excitement.

“It’s not even Christmas,” Danny mumbled, stubbornly squeezing his eyes shut even tighter and tucking his head into the crook of Peter’s neck, his hair that needed to be cut tickling his chin.

“Yeah, but it’s  _ morning _ , and I want to get up.”

Danny sighed, still not opening his eyes. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have kept me up all night with a Star Wars marathon. Why Star Wars? Beats me.  _ Christmas _ should be for  _ Christmas movies,  _ obviously.”

“Okay, we’ll watch Christmas movies on Christmas,” Peter said, grinning when Danny looked up to give him a flat look, finally relenting and opening his eyes.

“You’re the worst.”

“You  _ love _ me.” He attempted to leave again, but Danny held tight, and Peter had no doubt in his mind that if he used his super strength (which beat out Danny’s by far) then Danny would just cling to him like a koala.

“I need to get a giant sweatshirt, just huge, and then you can cling to me and still be cozy.”

“Great idea,” Danny said. “But you don’t have that right now. So sleep. You’re warm.”

“You’re  _ cold.” _

“Oh  _ well.” _

Peter laughed, letting himself lie there for a moment, holding him and just  _ being. _

“What are you two doing?” Tony asked as he peered over the back at the couch at them, heading into the kitchen and beginning to brew himself a cup of coffee.

“Sleeping.”

“Getting up.”

Danny wrinkled his nose at Peter’s response in unison to his own. “Noooooo,” he said, dragging the word out.

“You want eggs?”

“Sure,” Peter said. “You know how I like them.”

He huffed as Danny refused to let go, giving up and just scooping Danny into his arms, his boyfriend shrieking as he used the strength he’d been ignoring to pull them up to standing.

Danny didn’t get up though, simply tightening the blanket around himself and leaning his head against Peter’s chest, seeming content to lay bridal style in his arms.

“Unbelievable.”

Danny hummed. “Totally believable, actually. I’m not getting up.”

“I’ll drop you,” Peter warned, bouncing him slightly to make him jump.

“I  _ dare _ yo— _ eek!” _ He gave Peter the most offended look he’d ever had directed at him in his life. Then he curled up in the blanket on the floor, going back to sleep.

“It’s 8:20,” Tony told Danny. “It’s a perfectly reasonable time to get up.”

“Not when you have a needy spider boyfriend that makes you stay up all night watching Star Wars with him.”

“Boo-hoo, you get to experience high-quality movies.”

Danny raised an eyebrow at that and Peter gasped as though he were offended. “You take that back.”

“I didn’t  _ say _ anything!”

“It was implied.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Danny said, rolling his eyes and stretching out on the floor, his loose shirt (actually, Peter was pretty sure that was  _ his _ shirt) riding up and showing his stomach.

“Yeah, well I’m your problem, so have fun with that.”

Tony snorted from the kitchen. “You say that like  _ he’s _ the one who has to deal with you when you’re being an idiot and go get yourself stabbed.”

Danny huffed, holding an arm out so Peter would pull him to his feet. “I’m the one who goes with him so he doesn’t get stabbed in the first place.”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “How’s that working out for you? He literally got stabbed last week. You’d  _ think _ that five years of experience would make him a little better at dodging.”

“And he literally has a sixth sense that warns him of danger,” Danny added, fingers loosely holding Peter’s as he pulled him to the kitchen.

“Why is everyone ganging up on me?” Peter whined, fighting back a smile. “Pepper, come be on my side.”

Tony perked up, finally noticing her standing in the doorway (enhanced senses were good like that). “Hey Pep,” he said cheerfully, pulling her into a kiss as soon as she was close enough.

“If the argument is that you shouldn’t be getting yourself stabbed as many times as you do, I’d have to agree with the others.”

Peter sputtered, offended. “Why aren’t you making fun of Danny for when  _ he _ gets hurt. He got shot the other day when we were patrolling, and he can literally turn intangible.”

Danny gasped, barking out a laugh as he pouted at Peter. “I-you shut up. It’s  _ hard to remember _ sometimes.” His words lost some of their effect due to the fact that the words were interlaced with laughter as he struggled to keep a straight face.

“You’ve had your powers even longer than I’ve had mine!”

“No, stop changing the subject. We were making fun of Peter, let’s go back to that.”

Tony chuckled as Pepper rolled her eyes fondly.

“Let’s not,” Peter said, stealing a bite of Danny’s eggs and flailing around as Danny tried to retaliate, play fighting with their forks.

“Hey Peter,” Danny stage-whispered a few minutes later, once they’d finished eating.

“What?” he asked at the same volume.

“Wanna go patrol with Santa hats on?”

“Um, absolutely,” he said at full volume. “Wait for me to get my suit on and I’ll race you to Queens.”

“Pfft, that’s not a fair challenge. You  _ know _ I’m faster.”

Peter’s eyes narrowed as Danny smirked at him. “Oh, you’re  _ on.” _

* * *

The chime of the bells on the door as he opened it was familiar to Peter, as was the smell of coffee and music playing quietly in the background. Danny was in the middle of taking someone’s order and Peter could see Sarah tying her hair back and grabbing her apron to prepare for her shift.

Peter couldn’t help the smile that came across his face as Danny saw him and visibly lit up, holding up a finger to tell him to wait for a moment while he prepared the person’s order.

“Peter Parker!” he called out after handing the other guy his cup, despite the fact that he never ordered.

“Let me go make my own and put my stuff away,” he said with a wink as Peter accepted his familiar drink.

He couldn’t help but let out a bubbly laugh at the same  _ “Pablo Papercut”  _ written on his cup. It didn’t matter that they’d been dating for two months, Danny still refused to write his actual name on his coffee. (He secretly loved it.)

“You ready?” Danny said, slipping a leather jacket Tony had gotten him over his shoulders and grabbing his own drink. He’d been insisting on wearing it every day, as the weather was getting warmer and he soon wouldn’t be able to.

“As I’ll ever be,” he quipped jokingly, holding the door open for him.

“Stop doubting me. It’s gonna be fun!”

“In what world is going to hell considered ‘fun’?”

“Hell, probably.”

Peter snorted, almost shooting hot coffee up his nose. “Is that why the ghosts all come here?”

Danny made an exaggerated shushing noise and waved his arms in Peter’s face. “Shhh, semantics, babe.”

Danny’s phone started ringing, and he froze before giving Peter the most annoyed look he could muster while sporting a coffee mustache. (How the  _ hell _ did he manage to get a mustache? His drink came with a  _ straw _ for crying out loud.)

“Peter I swear to God if you don’t stop changing my ringtone to the freaking Ghostbusters song I will actually murder you.”

Peter laughed, hiding his grin behind his cup. “How do you know it was  _ me?”  _

“Maybe because you’ve done it five times this week?” Danny said, deadpan.

“I wouldn’t have changed it so many times if you would stop changing it  _ back _ .”

“I’m not making my ringtone the Ghostbusters song, Peter. I actually have class, unlike  _ some  _ people.”

“Are you going to answer the call?”

Danny cursed, pulling his phone out of his pocket and fumbling it for a moment, answering it at the last second and pulling it to his ear.

“Heeeeeeey, Tony. What’s up?”

_ Not a word, _ he mouthed, pointing an accusing finger at Peter, who was biting his lip in a vain attempt to hide his smirk.

“Nope,” Danny said after a moment, hanging up.

“What did he want?” Peter said, frowning.

“Alien invasion.”

Peter sputtered, making a high pitched noise of disapproval.  _ “Danny!” _

“What?” he said. “The Avengers can  _ handle _ it.”

“We can’t just  _ leave  _ in the  _ middle _ of an alien invasion.”

“Watch me.”

_ “Danny.” _ Peter pulled out his best puppy dog eyes, stopping in the middle of the street to stare him down.

Danny’s eyes narrowed. “Fine,” he ground out, but Peter could see him fighting back a smile.

“God, those eyes are a weapon. Forget the genetic mu—mmmmph”

Danny gave him a look as Peter hurriedly covered his mouth, continuing to walk. “You can’t just  _ talk about _ stuff like that in the  _ middle of the street _ , Danny, what if—” he cut off with a shriek, yanking his hand away from Danny’s mouth as though it had burned him.

“Did you just  _ lick me?” _

“Maybe,” Danny said, looking far too pleased with himself.

Peter was ready to fire something back, but was interrupted as Danny’s phone began to ring again.

“Yeah, yeah. We’re coming, old man,” Danny said as he picked up, not giving Tony the chance to speak.

“Shall we?” he asked Peter, lips twitching up in a smirk and eyebrow raised.

_ “Do you really  _ need  _ our help?”  _ was the first thing Phantom said into the comms as he and Spider-Man flew into the fray.

_ “Are you skipping work?” _ Sam asked.

_ “No, he was going to take me to _ —”

_ “On a date. You’re interrupting our date, Stark.” _

_ “I don’t think most people would consider going to hell a date,”  _ Peter snorted, grunting as one of the alien things landed a hit on him.

_ “All that matters is that we’re together, right babe?” _

_ “Aww, babe.” _

_ “God, we sound like Ned and Betty did when they first got together,”  _ Danny said dryly, a bright blast of green fire exploding from his palms.

_ “You didn’t  _ know _ them when they first got together,”  _ Peter reminded him.

_“Guys,_ focus,” Cap reminded them, Peter, Danny, Tony, and Clint all groaning in unison.

_ “Spoilsport.” _

_ “No flirting on the comms,”  _ Clint teased.

_ “That only applies to Steve and Bucky!”  _ Danny objected, letting out a squeak of surprise as he was thrown into the pavement.  _ “Ow,” _ he groaned.

_ “Danny, you can turn  _ intangible,” Peter said in exasperation.

_ “No really? I forgot.” _

_ “It sure looked like you did.” _

_ “Oh shut up y _ —”

_ “No arguing on the comms either,” _ Steve said, sounding completely done with them.

_ “Are we almost out of the city limits?” _ Danny asked after a blur of fighting creature after unknown creature, flying up for a moment to survey the fight and letting Spider-Man catch his wrist with a web, pulling him up in a piggyback ride as there were no more skyscrapers to swing from.

_“Phantom, don’t you_ dare _scream with your comms on again or I swear to_ God,” Tony said hurriedly, everyone else shuddering slightly as they remembered the last time Danny had used his Ghostly Wail, forgetting to remove his comms first and almost giving everyone permanent hearing damage (except Clint, who realized what was going on and took his out. But Clint already _had_ permanent hearing damage).

_ “Hey Tony, do Spidey and I have to debrief with you guys after, or are we good?” _

_ “Avengers have to debrief, so if you’re training to be an Avenger. . .” _

The two barely teenagers groaned in unison.

_ “Hey Spidey, let’s just run now and leave the “real” Avengers to deal with this.” _

_ “Sounds like a plan.” _

“Peter Benjamin Parker,  _ don’t you  _ dare _ take off your co _ —”

* * *

“This is a terrible idea,” Peter said, deadpan.

“This is the  _ best _ idea,” Danny argued, vibrating in place with his excitement.

“Danny, sweetheart,” Maddie said hesitantly, clearly trying to find a way to let him down gently. “Are you  _ sure _ this is safe?”

“Of course it is,” Tony promised, waving those concerns away with a hand, though he looked just as terrified as she did. “I made it.”

“If Tony non-superpowered Stark can survive flying in an Iron Man suit in the middle of a battle, I’m pretty sure I can take it. And I can fly on my own power Mom, in case you’ve forgotten, so if I fall I’ll be fine.”

Maddie bit her lip and glanced away at the reminder of the years Danny had spent hiding from them because of their own ignorance, but Danny simply raised an eyebrow at her, looking totally prepared to go into another rant as to why he still loved them and why it wasn’t their fault. (Peter was of the opinion that they were at least partially responsible, but—despite his best efforts—he  _ liked _ the Fentons, and he knew they already blamed themselves wholly, which meant it would be downright cruel to make them feel worse about their mistakes.)

_ “I _ think it’s a great idea,” Jack said, seeming just as excited as Danny.

“Why did I agree to this?” Tony asked, the question directed at Pepper, who merely shrugged and smiled at his misfortune.

“You bet that I couldn’t scare Peter because of his enhanced hearing and I scared him  _ shitless _ so now I get to fly in an Iron Man suit,” Danny reminded him, smiling far too widely to look innocent.

Peter pouted. He had  _ known _ Danny was going to try and scare him, but that didn’t help when he woke up to go to the bathroom at four in the morning and when he opened the door to the bathroom attached to his bedroom (his half-asleep brain hadn’t even  _ registered _ that Danny wasn’t in bed), he was  _ absolutely _ not expecting Danny to be standing  _ right inside the fucking doorway _ or for him to jump at him, yelling, which  _ definitely _ woke him up. One would have thought Danny would have registered as a threat to his Spidey Sense, but fate didn’t seem to agree. (Fate was a little bitch that Peter was going to punch in the face if he ever got the chance.)

Needless to say, Peter practically shit himself while screaming bloody murder and Tony rushed in to find Danny on the bathroom floor literally in tears as he cackled with Peter grumbling curses at him, still trying to calm his racing heart.

“You have superpowers,” Tony sighed. “Why is the thought of using an Iron Man suit so entertaining?”

“Because it is,” Peter and Danny said in unison, gasping and looking at each other in excitement at the unintended overlapping.

“We’re all gonna die,” Tony said dryly.

“And it’s gonna be  _ awesome,” _ Danny added, ignoring the looks everyone gave him.

Tony huffed. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Be careful, sweetie!” Maddie added.

Danny grinned.

“That was the best thing I’ve ever done in my  _ life,” _ Danny cackled as the suit fell open and he stumbled out, legs weak from the crazy rollercoaster.

“I’ll say,” Peter grumbled, probably jealous.

“Great,” Tony said, clapping. “We’re never doing that again. Goodbye.”

Danny’s parents had already left the lab, and Tony and Pepper followed, leaving Danny and Peter alone.

“Oh my god, that was actually the worst,” Danny groaned as soon as they were gone.

Peter burst into laughter. “Are you for real?”

“It was  _ awful! _ There’s, like, no control over where you’re going. No flips and spins and it’s just  _ terrible. _ ”

“Why bother making Tony think you loved it?” Peter laughed. “Judging by the look on your face, I doubt you’re gonna try taking it out again any time soon.”

“Yeah, but I can make him  _ think _ I want to take it out again, and he’ll make that dumb face he always does.”

They paused for a moment, looking at each other, silent. Then Danny snorted and they both doubled over laughing.

“You’re absolutely ridiculous,” Peter said fondly.

“You like it,” Danny retorted, smiling even as he tried to pout.

Peter scoffed. “Whatever,” he deflected. “Should we go join the others before Tony thinks we blew something up.”

Danny shrugged. “That or we could actually blow something up.” He winked. Peter grinned.

“You’re right, that sounds like more fun. What do you say we play with the repulsors? Those might be more fun.”

_ “Don’t you fucking dare!” _ Tony yelled from outside the door. Danny and Peter fought to keep their laughter silent.

“Tony?” Danny cried, acting shocked. “Were you  _ listening in on our conversation?” _

He opened the door and glared at them. “I hate both of you _so_ goddamn much.”

“Sure you do,” Peter teased.

"I should kick you out of my incredibly expensive tower for making plans to blow it up."

"We weren't gonna blow the whole _Tower_ up," Peter objected, in unison with Danny's "Sure you will."

“I actually came back when I realized you weren’t following so I could remind you that we’re having dinner soon.”

“Shall we?” Danny asked, holding out an arm for Peter to take, which he did.

“Alright.” Peter lowered his voice to a stage-whisper. “We’ll blow things up after we eat.”

“No, you fucking  _ won’t.” _

* * *

Danny sat on the roof of the Tower, his feet dangling over the edge, heels hitting the side of the building. He wasn’t transformed, but he wasn’t afraid of the immense drop below him.

He’d met Peter’s friends that morning—Ned and Michelle. It was awkward to start with (he knew why, of course. Sam and Tucker hadn’t exactly expected him to go off and get a boyfriend in New York, so he assumed Ned and Michelle were the same) but it wasn’t long before they were telling jokes and trading quips like old friends (which most of them were, but whatever).

But there was something Michelle had said that stuck out to him.

He’d gone to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and she had followed. Ned and Peter were in the middle of a conversation (Danny thought he heard the words Star Wars somewhere in there, but they were talking too fast for him to tell), assuring they wouldn’t be listening in.

“He looks happy,” she had said.

Danny had paused, looking at her blankly, confused. “What?”

“Peter,” she elaborated. “He looks happier than he did when I left for college. Ned was first to leave, and after that, he was down, so I’m guessing it was worse when I left. Yeah, he had the Avengers, but Tony’s more like a dad to him than a friend.”

“That’s what I said!” Danny had said. “Or, well, the part about Tony basically being his dad.”

She had rolled her eyes. (She reminded him of Sam.) “He was lonely. He never would’ve admitted it, but he was. Thank you for being there for him.”

Danny had shrugged, a little embarrassed by the praise. “He was there for me too. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s, like, really hot.”

“Whatever loser,” she had said, though years of knowing Sam as well as he did let him notice the hints of a smile on her lips. “I’m glad you two found each other.”

"Um, thanks?" he had said, unsure of how to respond to it at the time.

She snorted. "Call me MJ."

It was that line that he thought about now.  _ “I’m glad you two found each other.” _

It wasn’t something he’d thought about before. Of _course_ he  _ was _ glad he’d met Peter, but he’d never taken the time to think that maybe Peter had needed him just as much as he had needed Peter.

He had only known Peter for eight months, but he couldn’t imagine not having him in his life. He’d been in relationships before. He had sort of been dating Valerie before she broke up with him, and he’d dated Sam for four months until they both admitted that they just didn’t like each other like that, but neither of those had been anything like this.

When he’d dated Valerie, they hadn’t really been good friends beforehand. He’d liked her and she’d liked him, but they didn’t have a strong friendship before dating. When he and Sam had started dating, they’d been friends for  _ years, _ but there had been pressure in their relationship, from their friends and family (and even everyone at school) that had expected them to work out, and it just made it awkward and stilted and made the both of them feel like they  _ had _ to work out together, even if it was hurting their friendship. (They were totally fine now, as were he and Valerie, but those first few months after they broke up had been  _ awful.) _

With Peter, it was different. They had only been friends for a few months before, but they had just clicked instantly, and had spent a ton of time together. And when they did start dating, it didn’t change as much as Danny had expected. They were still best friends, and they’d always been affectionate, but their affection changed from just leaning on shoulders and laying in laps to holding hands and pressing kisses to each other’s cheeks (and lips, of course). There wasn’t this expectation that they had to act madly in love all the time and go on romantic dates every week. Instead, they watched dumb movies while tossing popcorn into each other’s mouths and making ridiculous commentary and ended up falling asleep on the couch sprawled over each other. It was quiet, it was comfortable, it felt _right._

They tried new things and failed spectacularly and tried to teach each other the things they enjoyed and laughed at themselves as it didn’t end well. Peter let Danny use his web-shooters once, and Danny instantly face-planted into the pavement. Danny tried to teach Peter to paint and he was literally covered in it by the end. (Danny was picking paint bits out of his hair two weeks later because Peter forgot he’d spilled on his hand and ran his fingers through his hair, which was a fairly accurate description of his life.)

It just felt natural. It didn’t feel forced to be with him, it wasn’t awkward and while there were some days where the conversation was a bit stilted because they hadn’t done much that day, it was easy enough to go bother one of the Avengers or turn on a movie or try and cook something. (Danny was actually a pretty decent cook, and Peter, surprisingly enough, knew how to bake, but neither of them could do both. Peter wasn’t allowed to cook because he always managed to burn it and Danny wasn’t allowed to bake because he always tried to be “creative” and ended up setting something on fire.)

“Hey,” a familiar voice said behind him. He jolted as he was torn out of his thoughts, grinning as Peter came up to join him, plopping down beside him and swinging his legs over the edge. It seemed a fear of heights was something neither of them was prone to.

“Hey yourself,” Danny teased. “What are you doing up here?”

“Looking for you,” Peter shot back, grabbing Danny’s right hand with his left. “What are  _ you _ doing up here?”

Danny shrugged. “Just thinking.”

Peter snorted. “Duh. About what?”

Danny sighed, running his thumb along Peter’s palm as he tried to figure out how best to explain his thought process.

“Have you ever—” he started. “Have you ever thought about serendipity?”

“Hmm?” Peter asked. “I’ve heard the word, but I’m not sure the exact meaning. Isn’t it like, fate, or something?”

“Kind of. Kind of not, though. It’s when something happens randomly that ends up being incredible.”

“Right. Why were you thinking about it?”

“I was just thinking it reminded me of us.”

“Us?”

“Y’know, how we met. What are the odds you’d go to a random coffee shop and end up befriending another superhero? Though I guess you didn’t think I was a hero at the time.”

“I was wrong,” Peter said firmly. “And I think I did more than befriend you.”

Danny elbowed him lightly, a difficult task when he was holding hands with him. “You knew what I meant, you dork.”

“Did I?”

“Oh, shut  _ up,  _ dumbass.”

Peter laughed lightly, his smile wide and a match with Danny’s.

“Y’know, if we’d managed to get our heads out of our asses sooner I might’ve been able to befriend you as Phantom too,” Peter commented.

Danny snorted. “Wouldn’t it have been funny if we’d befriended each other both as civilians  _ and _ heroes. How long do you think it would’ve taken us to figure it out?”

“Probably just as long,” Peter admitted. Danny could only agree with him. Peter may be a genius, but he was also an idiot. And Danny wasn’t a genius in the first place.

They fell silent for a time, watching the city below them as they sat together.

“I can’t imagine my life without you,” Peter whispered, unknowingly echoing Danny’s thoughts from earlier.

Danny beamed at him before kissing him lightly. “Me either,” he murmured against his lips.

As he pulled away, Peter stole one last kiss before wrapping him into a hug.

“I’m  _ so _ lucky I don’t have to.”

Danny smiled dopily, hiding it by leaning his head against Peter’s shoulder. “I guess it was just serendipity.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've reached the end. This is the longest thing I've ever written and finished, and while you can't really tell since I edited each chapter before posting, my writing has noticeably improved as I've written it. I want to thank everyone who followed along and read this utterly ridiculous story, and everyone who has commented and brightened my day :).  
> If you're interested in other Danny/Peter stories, I will, of course, recommend THe Ghost of Heroes by Enigmaris first off (though I'm pretty sure most of the people reading this came from there), as it's absolutely _fantastic_ , and if you're done with that, almost all of my other works feature Danny/Peter as their main pairing.  
> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments make my day! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Should I have actually come up with a name for the coffee shop? Probably. Am I clever enough to actually do so? Not in the slightest.


End file.
